Left Behind
by Kanassa
Summary: The world is in shambles, a virus transforms it's populous into snarling monstrosities, leaving so many families without a home or their siblings. Ruby Rose was there at the start of this nightmare, forcing her to grow up in a world she should never of seen, but she's prepared to walk among the ashes and survive to the end. But when the world goes to hell, is there really an end?
1. Chapter 1: The start of the End

"We advise that people walk carefully through the streets and watch out for any victims of this outbreak. If you come across someone who appears sick, back away and call the authorities as it is highly contagious. If you start to display symptoms such as, nausea, rotting skin, repeated vomiting, it is advised that you come to the authorities for a check up. Any other symptoms and advice can be found at the Government website and our Guide that has been installed on your Scroll (Government instituted communication device). This is Ryan Decker with CBI Radio news, wishing you luck for what's ahead. Next, the results of the latest Griffball game"

As the radio announcer was replaced by a more energetic voice, a small pale hand reached out from the shelter of it's pink covers to turn the radio off, a soft groan emitting from the hand. Soon the covers were pushed off to reveal the short black hair belonging to a girl of only six, who crawled out of the bed while rubbing her grey coloured eyes. The little girl was soon standing in the middle of her room with her arm tightly wrapped around a large stuffed Beowulf while her other hand placed her thumb inside her mouth.

The lights were off in the room, leaving only the few rays of light of the morning rise that flooded through her blinds to aid her sight. The girl made her way to the wooden door that lead to the plain hallway, which she used to get to the top of the stairs, already hearing the news blaring from the TV in the living room.

"-nd with that, the Vale Beowulfs have won the semi-finals and move on to the final.'' came the commentator's voice, which was quickly followed by a nearby cheer and the sound of another jumping on the spot in joy.

"Beowulf's strong and proud!'' The blond that yelled this cheer was currently dancing on the spot, to the dismay of her sister that only face palmed. "Blake owes me a cookie!"

"I want a cookie, Yang!'' Moaned the small girl as she approached Yang, the nine year old looking down at her sister with a big grin.

"We'll share it. Okay, Sis?'' Yang crouched down to ruffle her sister's hair, keeping the grin as Ruby wrapped her arms around the blond.

"Can Chopper have some too, Sis?'' Ruby asked while squeezing her stuffed animal that she had dubbed 'Chopper'.

"I don't know, Sis. Are you sure he deserves some?'' Yang giggled as Ruby pulled away and held Chopper infront of her, bobbing his head she spoke in a high pitched voice.

"Oh pwease, I can't keep Ruby warm on a empty sweet stomach!'' 'Chopper' pleaded, only resulting in Yang to giggle.

"Okay, okay. You get a piece''

"Yay! You hear that, Chopper. We'll be rolling in cookie crumbs!'' She waved the wolf around, hugging him tightly. Her dance was interrupted by a loud sequence of coughs from the other room. "Momma!''

The two rushed across the hall with Ruby leading, already fighting back tears as she managed to burst through the door. She was met with the sight of a woman that looked much like herself, having the same pale skin and raven hair wrapped up in a cover. The woman took very deep breaths as sweat dripped down from her blood red forehead and fading skin.

Arms wrapped around Ruby's wait and forcefully pulled her out of the room, turning Ruby around to face the angry eyes of her sister. "What did I tell you? Never go to Moma while she's sick!"

"Sorry…'' Was the only response through the small girl's various sniffles.

"It's okay…Just wait over there while I get Moma her medicine'' Yang indicated to a space a few inches away and Ruby obediently went to the spot and stood still, Yang rushing off as more coughing fits were heard.

This had become a daily routine for the sisters ever since their mother got sick with a strange new disease that had had broken out months ago, leaving the woman bedridden while the sisters took care of her. Well, only Yang really took care of their mother as she always forbid that Ruby stand anywhere near the sick woman as the disease was very contagious and Yang didn't want to risk it. They had gotten medicine from a friend of their mothers as they were not allowed to give her to the Government ever since rumours started to circulate that any infected people were executed.

Yang was taking some time to get the medicine ready and Ruby couldn't handle the continuous coughing as it only made her want to go into the room and help in some way, but Yang forbid it. The coughing had stopped now, allowing Ruby to calm down more, hoping that her mother was sleeping better. She scratched her arm as she stared at the doorway, the need to check on her mother growing by the second. Yang was still preparing the medicine….and she was just looking. It's couldn't hurt, right?

Ruby approached the door slowly, pressing herself against the wall and pushing her head past the side to peek into the room. Her mother lay motionless under the covers, her skin seeming darker then usual, she was asleep, yet her eye's were open. There was no breathing heard from the woman, her chest was as still as the rest of her body.

"Moma?" Ruby entered the room with a curious expression, making her way to the sleeping woman and kneeling down next to her. The little girl placed her hand on the side of the woman and softly shook her mother. "Moma, you need to move. You said that breathing was good" The girl thought back to that time that she held her breath with the stupid thought that she didn't need to breathe Dumb, dumb. "Momma? Wake up"

There was movement from the sleeping woman now, but it was strange, robotic, stiff and inhuman. Groans came from the woman as it started to rise from the floor, Ruby still had her head against the woman's chest with a few tears in her eye's "I thought you were going to sleep forever, Momma''

"Ruby!" came Yang's hopeless scream, echoing across the house, the body now sitting and looking down at Ruby, it's hands moving to hold her. The nine year old blond rushed across the room and grabbed Ruby, taking one second to throw her away just as the hand slashed down on the air where Ruby used to be.

Ruby now got a look at what used to be her mother, the pale skin was now darker then ever, the smell of rotton apples drifting around the room, what remaining of the woman's hair was falling out and her eye's were empty and emotionless. "M-momma!?"

"Ruby! Go to your room!" Yang yelled as she pushed the woman away with great frustration, the woman had seemed to lost her natural balanced and fell on the opposite side of Yang.

"What's wrong with Momma!?" Ruby asked with tears dripping.

"NOW!" Yang screamed at her, the woman now getting back up with a savage groan.

Ruby flinched at the tone of Yang's voice, tearing up as she backed away slowly, soon taking off up the stairs with soft feet. Soon she arrived at her room, bursting in and slamming her door before jumping on her bed and curling into a ball, no longer holding back the tears. Glass was smashed down stairs from what she could hear, the screams as wood split into two signalled that the cupboard had fallen over. There was loud panting and then a war cry as the wall was hit, a body was heard falling to the ground, then there was silence….

Footsteps were heard coming up the stairs rather slowly, the footsteps were unbalanced as the person seemed to constantly slip as they drew near. Ruby held her breath, strangling poor Chopper and not taking her eye's off of her door. The door knob turned slowly, the door soon being thrown open by the person on the other side as Ruby hid under the covers. She raised the covers slightly and peeked out, witnessing Yang standing by the doorway, frozen. Her clothes were ripped, her blood splattered hands shakily holding a broken baseball bat. Tears flooded from the girl's eyes as she stared at Ruby with a guilty look.

"Ruby…" Yang called out softly.

Ruby rushed from under the covers to hug her sister, crying into her shoulder and leaving a damp spot. "Where's Mamma!?"

Yang was silent for the moment, biting her lip before replying in a cracked voice "Momma's gone…."

The huge buck of the bus as it ran over a jutting rock jolted awake the tall nine year old that was sleeping on his chair, almost being thrown off of the seat as a result. His hand quickly grabbing hold of the pole next to him, squeezing it as if his life depended on it, only to let go when he realised that he was no longer falling.

"Jaune, that is the fifth time you've done that'' came the calm tone from beside him, causing the blond to pout as he turned to face his raven haired friend (Who also had a few pink streaks in his hair…which Jaune felt better to not question)

"I'm just prepared for the worst, Ren. This bus could suddenly crash at any time!'' Was his moaning response to his friend, crossing his arms.

"You're just having a large case of Paranoia'' Ren replied coolly, a small smile on his lips.

"Call it what you want, but I know when I'm right!'' Jaune proclaimed, to which Ren only rolled his eyes. Sometimes Jaune would forget that Ren was only nine like him.

"Where's Pyrrha? She was sitting right behind us'' Jaune asked with his head sweeping the bus.

"She went to speak with the driver about something" Ren replied with a slight yawn, indicating his drowsiness when set his head limply against the seat.

''Don't go to sleep! I need someone to talk to!'' Jaune moaned in distress.

"I need my energy, Jaune. Especially with Nora waiting to greet us when we get back'' Ren replied quietly, adjusting his position.

"Her hugs aren't THAT bad'' Jaune crossed his arms

"Didn't she dislocate your shoulder once?''

"It still hurts…It took a million mommy kisses to make it better…" Jaune rubbed his right shoulder, shivering at the memory. "On second thought, we should both get our rest!"

Jaune attempted to imitate Ren's sitting position beside him, resting his head on the window, he looked out at the side of the road, railings blocking the way to the steep slope of the grassy hill. He felt a small rumble in his stomach as the seemingly swerving movements of the bus started to bring out his motion sickness, his mouth clenched shut and his eyes staring onwards. Wait, why is the bus swerving!?

Pyrrha had originally come to the driver to complain about another passenger that was harassing her (She did not take kindly to be constantly poked and asked 'Is that annoying yet?''), but unfortunately the driver seemed to avoid talking of the other passengers and decided to start complaining.

"-so the guy just bills me for speeding! I mean, you could hardly call that speeding, I was moving like a turtle!" The driver complained, raising his fist to punch the air, though he brought his fist back down instantly to cough harshly into.

"Shouldn't you be paying attention to the road, Mr?" Pyrrha responded meekly, she could of just walked away from the driver, but she the constant yelling of the driver made seemed nailed to the ground. She wished she had just went to the back to sit with her parents, but she inherited her father's nack listening to everyone that demanded to be listened to.

"Who said that I'm not? I'm driving perfectly fine'' The bus was beginning to lean towards the side, but the driver didn't seem to notice, only continued to cough into his hand again, making Pyrrha held the expectation that he would start coughing blood, though he only started scratching his bandaged arm.

His eye's fell on it for a moment, his eye's starting to glare towards it, as if indicating that he found a new thing to complain about. "Even with this thing, you should have been there yesterday. I was just walking home by myself, enjoying the day with daisies an' stuff and then this dude charges at me! Now this dude, he looked as if he just broken out of the hospital, he looked sick as hell! He charged right at me and pushed me to the ground, now while this guy had the advantage in surprise, I was still stronger then 'im. So, I managed to push the bastard of- I mean meanie, pardon me for the no-no word, little 'un- off of me, but not before he took a great bite out of my arm!" The driver gestured with his bandaged arm. "So, I- Oi!" The man yelled out the window as a car almost crashed right into them, just skimming the front of the bus.

Pyrrha looked out of the front window to get a look at the other cars on the road, two yellow ones seemed to share the Driver's expression of anger at the swerving cars, and some of the vehicle's seemed to hold drivers that just suddenly fall limp over the steering wheel. A large truck was also swerving, but the driver of the vehicle was clearly still awake, but he wasn't alone as he struggled to push back the woman that was clawing at him. "Why is everyone hurting each other!?" Pyrrha mostly cried to herself.

The driver of the truck was putting up a good defence against the woman, but even that was broken as he was slammed against the window, his blood curling cries for help could even be heard as the woman started to: Bite him!?

The bus managed to avoid crashing into another car with the unattended driver, the passengers now clinging for dear life from their seats. Various screams of protest came from the back of the bus in a jumbled mess of noise. "What the hell is going on!?" "I want to get off this deathtrap!" "I'm gonna be sick!".

The driver turned his head to address the passengers, giving them a fearful smile and nod. "Don't worry everyone, just stay in your seats. There are just some road ragers on the road, nothing I can't handle!" The passengers seemed to calm at this, though Pyrrha could see form her spot that Jaune was starting to hyperventilate.

This was when Pyrrha realised that the driver was not watching the road as he tried to calm everyone down, when she looked back out the window, she was right to expect that the now driverless truck was now heading straight for them. "LOOK OUT!" She screamed at the driver, who's head shot to look out in front of him, spinning the wheel around.

The bus veered towards the railing, Pyrrha grasping the pole beside her to keep on her feet, looking back to Ren who was holding down a green looking Jaune. Her eye's went back to the truck that barrelled towards them at the result of the screams of the bus, everything seemed to go in slow motion. The bus wouldn't be able to manuver around the truck, Pyrrha knew this and clamped her eye's shut and braced for impact.

She felt the skinny arms of her father wrap around her in a attempt to shield her and that's when… The Truck slammed into the bus and both were pushed off of the road and down the steep slope.

The streets were in shambles, windows shattered across the sidewalk, car's abandoned on the road, even graffiti to explain this 'apocalypse' were already painted brightly over most of the withering walls. A man covered from head to toe in thin black armour observed his dying surroundings, a sigh escaping his lips as he gripped his gun tightly.

"Ozpin, what's the status of Vale?" Came a voice from the armoured man's earpiece, who reached up to adjust the device's angle, making it louder through the wind.

"It seems that everything has gone to hell… I can't see any signs of life in this city, not even any infected'' Ozpin guessed that he should be happy that he hasn't ran into any of the creatures that used to be fellow people, but right now, the thought of the entire town being abandoned seemed to scare him more.

"Search for any survivors and kill any of those THINGS you find'' The voice responded with disgust hidden in his voice, Ozpin knew that his Commander's family had been in the first city hit by the virus, he wasn't given any time to grieve.

"Over and out, Sir'' The contact ended and Ozpin was back to being alone, with only a pistol and a stun baton to protect him. He didn't have the equipment he should have had, the government wanting to get on the outbreak in Vale as fast as possible, but they didn't realise how fast the virus spread here. Ozpin didn't have much hope of finding survivors.

He made his way down the abandoned streets, his eye's glancing at the display of a smashed store window, a corpse left on the counter inside. But, what made him stop was the quiet squelching that came from near the corpse, it was faint, but he could hear and guess what it was.

The solider looked down to his pistol for a moment, clenching it tightly with his finger on the trigger, but he moved the gun to be put back in it's holster. Better not waste any ammo, besides, the noise might attract unwanted attention.

A few cautious breaths came from his lips before he moved inside the broken building, the sound he heard increasing in volume, accompanied by a small groan of delight. He brought out his baton and held it over his head, now crouched by the counter and peeking over the top. He saw it clearly now, squatting down to dig it's teeth into the corpse's hanging arm, was a small woman. Her very posh looking clothes were torn apart, leaving Ozpin a view of her completely black skin, though the few times she pulled away from the corpse gave him a glimpses of her disfigured face, her sharp and rotting teeth. And her eye's, they held a predatory lust, like a hungry animal that finally caught its prey.

This is what the Government universally now referred to as, Grim. While Ozpin had not encounter any of these results of the virus, he could tell what it was when thinking of other descriptions of what occurred in other cities. The once human eye's of the Grim turned to his peeking spot, a few fingers still hanging from the creature's jaw as it licked it's lips, Ozpin raising his baton as he backed away.

The creature pounced at him, throwing itself over the count with it's mouth wide open to display it's new teeth, it jumped at him again, but he managed to hit it back with his weapon. The creature crashed through what remained of the window, but appeared unharmed as it got to it's feet and growled at Ozpin, who only raised his weapon again in a daring motion. The Grim seemed to limp towards Ozpin at a fast rate, it's eyes solely focusing on his arm, which he dearly wanted to keep, thank you very much.

The Grim pounced towards him with it's skin-ripped arms raised to attack, but the soldier dodged to the side, quickly slamming his baton into the side of the beast's head, causing the Grim to fall face first into the glass shard (Though her hands managed to rip the pistol from Ozpin's holster, hitting it across the floor) that stood proud. Ozpin dashed to the fallen body as it still moved, he was quick to pick the head up from it's position and slam it back down on the corner, causing the body to spasm for a moment, but it didn't go limp like Ozpin expected. He came to the conclusion that now was a good time to use his gun, well, if it hadn't been thrown across the room by his attacker.

The body rose from the ground with the shard still firmly impaled on it's head, digging into it's eye as it growled at Ozpin. The man cursed loudly under his breath and raised his only weapon to defend himself, his eyes narrowing at the creature that he refused to let win. The creature lurched forward, Ozpin closed his eyes and moved his weapon…

*BANG*

A shot rang out, launching a bullet into the side of the creatures head as it tried to pounce, but before it could try to grip onto it's last drop of life, another bullet pierced it's head. Now, the beast finally collapsed to the floor limply, the shred of the person that it once was could finally have her peace.

Ozpin took a second to breath out slowly and calmly, leaning against the counter with his eyes pushing his vision away from the dead girl, before placing his gaze towards his saviour. A woman that seemed to be in her late twenties, a mop of long blond hair ran down her back with the slight look that some of it was torn out. Broken spectacles hung on the edge of her pointed nose, covering half of her violet eyes.

The woman's breathing was at a fast pace, her eyes wide at the gun she held in her hands, her whole body slightly trembling. ''I…killed her…I knew her…'' Her voice was pained, slowly lowering the gun's aim.

"But you saved me, which I would like to thank you for, Miss.'' Ozpin made a slight bow and slowly approached the shocked woman, who made not action to stop him.

"I bought clothes from her…'' The woman closed her eyes and seemed to shiver for a moment, before opening them with a hardened expression.

"You did what you had to'' Ozpin reassured, to which she nodded.

"I know…And I know I'll have to do it again'' She sighed, rubbing her temples.

"That is the cruel truth''

She nodded again, the gun now at her side as she looked to Ozpin directly for the first time. "I'm Glynda, ex-teacher'' She held out her hand, to which he grasped.

"Ozpin, military'' They shook hands and turned towards the exit that led out into the streets. "Those shots might of attracted some attention, I suggest that we move''

"Where will we go?'' Glynda asked, ready to follow.

"I was sent here to round up survivors and take them to a secure military outpost, safe from the virus'' Ozpin explained, stepping through the broken window and observing the empty streets. "You're the first I've come across''

Glynda was right behind him, gripping the pistol that he hadn't even tried to get back, though she guessed that he just wants them both to have a way to defend themselves. "Will we be looking for other survivors now?"

"I don't know, I've been here for hours and only came across you. Plus, the only place I haven't looked yet is the east side of the city and that isn't exactly safer then here from what we could observe''

''So, any survivors there are…trapped?'' Glynda rubbed her dry eyelids again in some sort of comfort, Ozpin was standing completely still with a determined look on his face.

"No, because I'm not leaving anyone behind''


	2. Chapter 2: Head in the Clouds

The loud ring of the home phone broke out across the seemingly empty house, pushing through the silent atmosphere, the sound reaching up stairs to fill each room. It was only a few moments later that the rushed footsteps of small feet trudged down the stairs, darting around the corner and into the living room where the phone resided in. The house looked very abandoned, the halls holding a coat of dust along with the doors that looked worse for wear, the cupboard still splayed across the floor with a cracked top like a corpse. Yang's rough fingers grasped the worn out device, her thumb pressing the answer button as she brought to her ear.

"Uh, Miss Rose? This is my first time using the phone…" Came a slightly tearful, but familiar voice

"Kitty Cat!" Yang let out a surprised squeak at the presence of the voice, though couldn't bring herself to smile at the phone.

"Ying!" Blake was Yang's best friend since two years ago, where the blond had pushed the faunas down a hill for continuing to mispronounce her name. Though Yang would love to yell to replace the 'i', she was just relieved to know that her friend was fine for the moment. "I wanted to check on you"

Yang felt her stomach drop in a pit as the memories came back, she shook as tears raced down her cheek while her hand tightly gripped the phone. "Mama…"

"Yi ng?'' Blakes voice came through the phone, Yang biting her lip and letting out a sniffle.

"Mama's…gone''

"She left you alone!?" Blake gasped, briefly losing her own teary voice.

"Mama's gone…'' Yang repeated more coherently, to which made Blake silent for a second.

"D-do you want to come over?'' Blake asked quickly, placing the thought that she might not know what's going on in the outside world.

The reply was instant, a desperate undertone to Yang's voice. "Yes please!" She knew that Blake's home was far away from their own, more then a few miles through the city to reach it, a trail that probably held more then a few creatures. But, this house held something Yang wanted to forget, She wante- No, needed, to get away from this house. And judging from the sobs that came from upstairs, Ruby needed to leave to.

"Well, you know where t-" There was a great crash, bricks seemingly collapsing to the floor in the background. Though Yang only heard one thing before the phone call ended "Monst-"

* * *

Jaune felt light headed for the moment, as if his brain had been replaced with cold air that tickles his spine. A shroud of darkness surrounded him, bringing with it the choking smell of smoke, like chalk shoved down his throat.

He moved his small arms to his right and felt his fingers brush up against the prick on top of a shard of glass, only to just stop himself from putting any pressure on the point and cutting himself. I'm not dead…I think. His heart beat was a slow and boring rhythm that hammered through his ears, he heard it as well as he felt the heat near by that casted a war glow over half of his face.

Finally light struck the darkness, breaking the shroud and shattering it into random shards in the ground, allowing Jaune to see his surroundings. He was lying beside a pole that held half of the button that used to be attached, along with a broken window hanging over his right side. Half of the bus was opposite him with a few corpses hung over or crushed, though Jaune only assumed that they were knocked out by the crash and needed help, emitting an aroma of a rotten spear that assaulted his nose. (Which caused Jaune to have a good time puking over the pole)

Pain pulsed through his left shoulder as he attempted to get to his feet, hindering his plan, but not stopping it all together. He was on his feet now and gripping his shoulder before he began to stagger forward.

A groan managed to find it's way through his ears from nearby, when he looked around for the source he was met with the sight of the bus driver struggling to get out of the front of the bus. A noticeable grey tone came to the driver's skin, his groans became growls as he violently beat the door the trapped him, looking to Jaune with a hungry look in his eye.

The nine year old rushed forward to help the adult, stopping infront of the metal door and looking it over, only finding that the part of the door that allowed it to open was buried a little in the soil. Jaune looked at the driver with an apologetic look, telling the man that "Sorry Mr, but I don't think I can open the door"

The response was…surprising to say the least: The driver's arm breaking through the glass and grabbing Jaune by his throat, dragging the boy forcefully over to the window and harshly causing Jaune to bang his head on the top of the window frame.

The blond couldn't breathe with the strong grip the man had on his throat, crushing his windpipes with a snarl and growl. His hand punched the already bloody arm as hard as it could in a hopeless attempt to escape, but the arm kept its grip and pulled Jaune further; Until the Ren and Pyrrha grabbed a hold of Jaune and pulled against the man.

The two seemed to have been behind the bus when Jaune started struggling against the driver, spotting their friend in danger they joined in with the escape, trying every trick from kicking to biting. None had a effect on the man. But, when in the flailing motions of the struggle, the man managed to slam his arm against the glass, causing a brief loosen of his grip in a reaction, giving Jaune the chance to be pulled out of the grip and sent to the floor.

Soon the man was growling louder at his lost prey and swinging himself against the door, only now did Jaune notice the man's darkening skin, to which he didn't even bother to ask about at the moment.

His friend briefly hugged him with the usual 'Thank god you're okay!' before dragging him away from the truck, desperate to get away from the 'angry' driver. Ren had a noticeable limp in his step, his trousers mostly damaged on his right leg, which seemed a darker shade of red then the left.

Soon they found themselves help Ren rush through the wall of trees that blocked their path, his arms around the other two's shoulders (Jaune not mentioning the pain in his own shoulder) as they went along. Jaune looked back to the bus one last time before asking "W-what was wrong with Mr . Driver?''

Ren looked at his feet, contemplating a second before replying "He was sick, Jaune. Very sick''

"Why did he grab me? Did I do something wrong?'' Jaune held a guilty expression for angering another.

"No! He was just a…meani!" Pyrrha replied with gusto, a glare coming across her face. "When I tell daddy what happened, he'll…'' Jaune noticed now that tears fell from Pyrrha's eyes.

"Pyrrha! Your eyes are leaking!" Jaune informed her, clearly alarmed.

"Yes…" Pyrrha made no effort to wipe them away, only looking ahead as the city came into view.

"Let's just get home, our parents will know what to do" Ren told the others, Jaune was happy upon hearing of the possibility of seeing his parents again. He hadn't seen them for a week as he and Ren went on a trip with Pyrrha and her parents. Nora was so jealous that we got to go, I wish she wasn't so sick!

"Then mommy can get a sticker for your leg!" Jaune smiled, seemingly forgetting the corpses he saw. "And then help all those people at the bus!"

"Of course, Jaune…" Ren muttered, unlike Jaune, he had realised that those back at the bus were not sleeping. "Let's go to Nora's, her house will be closest when we get there"

* * *

"Yang! I found a rock!" Ruby cheered as she skipped over to Yang, holding the small piece of the ground and waving it in the blonde's face as if it was an amazing treasure.

"That's very nice, Ruby, but not so loud" Yang patted the little girl on the head, relived to see Ruby's smiling face

"And look, Chopper found one too!" She held up the stuffed animal, who had a rock balancing on it's head.

"I'm proud of both of you" Yang turned to walk away, to which Ruby eagerly followed. It had been an hour since Yang had forced Ruby to pack and leave the house for the journey to Blake's, despite Ruby's moans and sobs. Ruby had died down since then, finding herself easily distracting her thoughts on this 'adventure' as she found interest in everything they found on the sidewalk. It relived Yang that Ruby was able to forget (Albeit briefly) what happened, though Yang was stuck with the close up view in her mind.

Ruby had decided to start hopping her way around the street, letting out a little giggle at Chopper's head bobbing up and down at each hop. She held an awed expression when staring at the crumbling buildings, sometimes kneeling down to poke the moss and suddenly jumping back in disgust. "Urg, it feels squishy! Gross!"

She would then continue to hop over to Yang with a slight frown as she noticed that Yang hadn't smiled once since they exited the house, so she hopped along side Yang and laid her head on the blonde's shoulder. "Yaaaang, why are you grumpy?"

Yang looked down at her little sister with a forced smile, a fake laugh escaping her lips. It hurts, Ruby. But, I'll endure…For you. "I'm fine Rubes, just a little distracted. I need to be on my toes if I'm gonna spot those monsters."

At the mention of the creatures, Ruby wrapped her small arms around Yang's waist, clinging to the older girl. "M-monsters!? They wouldn't come close, they'll run away if they know what's good for them!"

Yang stroked Ruby's hair as if the girl was a pet, bending over slightly to kiss Ruby on her forehead. "Yeah, and if they get within five metres, they'll be losing their heads! If all else fails, I'll set you on them"

"Uh-huh, b-but I don't need to, because you'll always protect me. Won't you, Yang?"

For a moment, Yang gave Ruby a true smile, looking down into those innocent silver eyes. "I will always protect you, no matter what." It wasn't a claim, a hopeful thought or just a way to calm the small girl. It was a promise, a contract, which only death would break.

The sister's continued down the path, Yang now deciding to carry Ruby and spin her around as they went, with Ruby never once losing her smile. The two now stood at the edge of another neighbourhood, 'Faunus Way', where Blake currently lived. The sight brought up a worrying thought in Yang's head, most of the houses were completely destroyed, more so then the buildings they passed a while back. Those buildings collapsed from age and no maintenance, these houses…Something broke down the walls and ripped apart the roofs.

Yang pulled Ruby along, more speed placed into her walk as she hurried to find Blake's house. "Ruby, let's be quick…"

Their walk, however was immediately stopped as they heard it, a wall collapsing to the ground, the heavy breath of an animal that echoed through their ears. The breathing then became a growl directed at them, before they felt it walk, each step like a mini earthquake.

"Y-yang?" The little girl looked to her sister with a trembling lip, her voice barely audible.

"Ruby. Run!"


	3. Chapter 3: Regret

Glynda screwed her face up in confusion as she stood amidst the crumbling ruins of a house, knelt down beside the shattered remains of what used to be a damn good vase. She looked up to Ozpin with a raised eyebrow and confusion, the man was standing quite calmly by the back of the house, looking out to the ruined world outside with a cup of steaming coffee in his hand.

"How can you be so calm with the world falling around us?'' Was her first question. The second will be about where the hell did he get coffee.

He simply gestured with the mug, a smile on his face as he sipped, bliss sparking in his eye. Glynda gave him a strange look, only causing him to shrug. "What? I like my coffee"

She rolled her eye's at the man, continuing her mission to look through the wreckage, moving away broken cupboards and smashed plates. "Where is it?"

Ozpin peered at the woman, still enjoying the godly taste of his drink as he asked. "What are you looking for?" Glynda had insisted that they come to her old house so that she could retrieve something while on their search for survivors.

"Shouldn't you be looking for survivors?" Glynda asked, not bothering to answer his question.

"Well, I was…" Ozpin took another sip.

"Was?"

He sighed and pulled away from his drink, a small frown on his face. "Still searching…" He stepped through the doorway and onto the street, already missing the semi-warmth of the inside. The tinted orange of the sun indicated that it was the afternoon, the glow blanketing Ozpin's lowered head. He closed his eyes and took it in, even the cold chill that scratched at his cheek couldn't take away from it. It was…peaceful.

Well, that was until the female scream of terror rang out through the street. Also causing Ozpin to drop his beloved coffee.

The sound of Glynda rummaging through the house was heard in the background of Ozpin's silent mourning over his drink, soon signalling her appearance at the door. "What was that!?"

"A little girl is in trouble" Ozpin guessed, reaching down to retrieve his baton and nodding at Glynda.

The two took off in search of the source of the scream, their bodies bent in a crouch-like position in an attempt to be quite. The roads laid on the ground with their parts strewn across the road like corpses that had been spread out and dragged around by a dog. Another scream came, causing the two to quicken their pace and sprint down the path, arriving at a street corner with their back's pressed against the wall.

"It's just a rat, Jaune…" came a calm voice that seemed to be resisting to sigh.

"Yeah, and they bite. Really, really hard! And they're so dirty!" replied what the two guessed were Jaune.

"Could you at least stop screaming?" It was a female voice now, all three sounded young.

Ozpin peeked past the corner blinking, there he was able to see three kids, probably around eight or ten. A blonde, a redhead and a raven haired one. The blonde was staring in horror at a rat that was crawling around a bin; the boy looked like he was on the brink of tears.

Glynda walk past Ozpin and approached the children slowly, after a moment of hesitation the man followed with his weapon behind his back, he was not aiming to scare them.

The children looked nervously at the two, Jaune going to hide behind the raven haired boy, shaking slightly. The Red head stepped forward with very evident nervousness. "S-sorry, miss. But my mommy and d-daddy said that we shouldn't talk to strangers"

Glynda knelt down to see eye to eye with the child, a kind smile on her face. "Well, my name is Glynda, the man next to me is Ozpin. There, we're not stranger's anymore"

The girl thought for a second before nodding vigorously "Yeah! My name's Pyrrha, those two are Jaune and Ren"

Jaune looked up to Ozpin, who stood calmly with a small smile. "Ozpin? Were you called that because you look weird?"

Ozpin blinked, his finger slightly twitching as he looked down. "Weird?"

"Yeah, I've never seen anyone with silver hair before" His eye's held an innocent gaze, making Ozpin simply sigh and smirk at the young one.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm a freak, aren't I?"

Jaune smiled at the man with a small giggle, now stepping out from behind Ren, though still wrapping his arms around himself. "We need to go now, though. We need to get our parents to help the sleeping people"

"Sleeping people?" Glynda inquired, her eye's catching tear starting to fall down Pyrrha's cheeks.

"Uh, we were in a bus, then it hit another car and went zooming down a hill. Now everyone is sleeping" Jaune explained, waving his hands around to exclaim the words.

Ozpin bit his lip and looked down; he knew that the child didn't grasp what actually happened to the people and even thought to tell the kid what 'death' was for a second. But he didn't need to kid to have an emotional break down away from safety.

"Ah, you're awfully brave to have come here by yourselves" Glynda diverted the subject matter, resulting in the boy biting his lip with a nervous smile.

"Y-yeah, my dad always said I was, uh…adventurous?" Jaune scrunched up his face as he tried to remember.

"We have to go find our friend, Nora, but it was nice meeting you" Pyrrha told them, giving Glynda a surprise hug.

Ren shook his head at them, walking past the two kids and looked up to Ozpin. "I'm scared to go alone, I want an adult!"

"Oh?" Pyrrha blinked, staring at Ren with a surprised look. He didn't look scared on the way here….

"If Ren's scared, you have to come with us! Or you would be…mean!" Jaune exclaimed.

"We can't be like that, can we?" Ozpin smiled, he had to remind himself to thank Ren later for not making this difficult.

Jaune and Pyrrha nodded and walked forward, following Glynda as she approached the corner with her gun raised, ready to shoot at any creatures that approached. Ozpin felt Ren's small hands pull on his arm to gain the man's attention, the soldier looked down at the boy. "Hm?

"I know they're not sleeping….Pyrrha does to" His voice was quite, depressing, almost as if he was on the brink of tears.

Ozpin was quite for a moment, before solemnly replying "It's good to know, ignorance will only harm us now…"

"Are we going to live through this?" The boy asked on the brink of tears.

Ozpin put his hand on the boy's head, attempting to comfort him, only for the boy to hug his leg with a few tears. "I'm going to keep you safe" Ozpin promised.

Glynda made her way towards the house the two children wanted to go to, Jaune trying to lead the way, only to scarper behind Pyrrha at the slightest hint of a rat. The boy now resorted to staying in his hiding spot behind the redhead girl, pushing her forward slightly to offer her as a human shield.

He told her the directions from his hiding place, happily helping out with a swell of pride in his chest. It amused the ex-teacher for a short while, it distracted her from the destruction around them and the remains of peoples ruined lives. Though soon her thoughts wondered to the empty streets, her eyes imagining the lost souls walking around, trying to know what happened.

A man desperately looks around for his daughter.

A woman looking down at the corpse of the random stranger she had mauled to death.

A young boy yelling for his parents, not knowing that they were currently stains on his lips.

How were they before the world went to hell? Was it a good moment that was ruined? Or were they low enough that hell just passed them by? Should she feel lucky that she's still walking? Maybe dying now wasn't so bad…

While Glynda was deep in this thought, Ozpin and Ren caught up to them, both looking a bit more tired. Pyrrha was pulling vigorously on Glynda's sleeve, trying to get the woman's attention.

"I think Pyrrha wants you, Glynda'' Ozpin chuckled slightly, finally causing the woman's head to snap out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" The woman looked at him for moment before turning her head to gaze down at Pyrrha.

"M-miss, Jaune's gone! He walked off by himself!'' The girl had tears of worry in her eyes, biting her lip and continuing to pull on Glynda's sleeve.

"You lost the kid!?'' Ozpin exclaimed loudly, his jaw dropping in surprise, before quickly kneeling beside Pyrrha to ask. "Where did he go?''

* * *

Ruby couldn't think, all she could do is run over the stone streets in terror, she heard nothing but the earth shaking vibrations as the creature the monster took a step. She didn't even attempt to look at it when Yang had pushed her away, screaming at her to get away from the beast. All that she had seen had been enough, it's emotionless eyes, their soulless gaze with a hint of primal hunger) stuck inside her brain, imprinted.

It was just like the monsters in the books her mother used to read to her, big hulking and snarling beasts that made everyone suffer, only for a dashing hero to come in and take it's head. Though the hero was taking his/her sweet time getting here.

While Ruby was only seven with short legs, she had found herself to be rather fast when she needed to, having a seemingly natural agility. Though that's not to mean that her run was as fast and enduring as a well matured adult, she knew that her legs would start to strain to much very soon, so it was time to play a game of hide an' seek.

Behind her she could hear the beast crash through a stone wall, completely collapsing the front of the poor house. So she instinctively dashed into the first turn she encounter, taking cover in a dark and gritty alley way that seemed to destroy her nose. "Yuck! There's so much green!'' The seven year old breathed in and out calmly, just like her mother taught her to do when she had nightmares, her mind grasping on to the image of her family to calm her.

She came upon a small door that stood a jar at the end of some steps, while the darkness inside didn't please her; Ruby found it more comforting then the smelly alleyway and the scary street. So she pushed through the gap the door had made, finding that it had rusted in place. When inside the room, Ruby was not surprised that it was almost pitch black aside from the light streaming from the door's gap, giving the room a small orange tint.

The small girl tip toed through the darkness with fear bubbling inside of her stomach at every slight creek of wood her feet made, her mind always picturing that the monster would appear in the darkness and have a good time running its claws through her. A small moan alerted her too another person in the house, it was a female moan coming from the next room over, though Ruby couldn't recognise what caused the moan.

Does she have a booboo? But her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shudder of the window beside her, her gaze switched through the darkness to find a new ray of light that came from the side of the closed curtain. Ruby nervously approached the curtains, planning to try and close it more to keep whatever it was out. It's the monster! Her small legs carried her over to the section of wall just below the window, right beside a small coffee table that was coated with dust. She pulled her self up onto the coffee table with some effort, squirming her legs to slide over the edge and land on the wobbling table. The curtains shuddered again accompanied by an annoyed grunt that made Ruby bite her lip, refusing to let the fear stop her as she reached out towards the curtain.

With a joined squeak, Ruby was met with a small boy forcing his way through the curtain and land right on top of her, his weight causing her breath to lower. "Ah! What did I land on!?'' The boy's voice squeaked in a much more scared tone then Ruby.

Ruby's lip trembled for a few moments before she eventually broke out in tears, her arms whacking the boy's back. "G-G-GET OFF OF ME! YOU'RE HURTING ME!''

There was an immediate response of the boy jumping at the sudden cry and rolling off the table to meet to carpet face first, a muffled cry could be heard. Ruby rubbed her eyes free of the tears and looked down at the fallen boy, giggling slightly at his fall. "You're clumsy…''

"Hey! Don't laugh, it hurts!'' The boy whined while his form rolled on the ground, Ruby now jumping off of the table with ease.

"You're the one that landed on me'' She accused with her small hands on her hips.

The curtain had open a bit more, letting more rays of light illuminate the boy's feature for her. His blue eye's shivered as tears poured from them, his blond hair holding a good amount of dirt spots, making it look ragged. Ruby let out a small sigh and approached the boy, still giggling she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

The boy didn't fight against the hug when it began, only responding in crying a bit more and grasping his own nose, which was currently bleeding. Ruby took a hold of his shirt, lifting the cloth to dab at the blood, though her jabs were rather hard and made the boy yell a few times.

Eventually Ruby found herself allowed to step back and watch the boy get to his feet, holding out her hand politely in the form of a hand shake. "I'm Ruby, my mom saids I shine brighter then gems!''

The boy blinked for a moment, before placing his forward to grasp her in a firm shake. "J-Jaune, my mom saids I'm gonna be a star and my dad said things about girls that I don't understand'' He smiled at the thought of his family, the handshake over.

"What are you doing here, Jaune?'' Ruby asked with her head tilted, the boy responding with a thoughtful look.

"Well, I was on a bus, then that crashed and everyone fell asleep. So me and my friends came to get mommy and daddy, when we met these really nice grown ups. But, I lost them….'' Jaune stated with shame held in his sagging head. "So I decided to come to my friend's, Nora, house''

Ruby nodded in understanding, she had never been the best with directions either, she even remembered the time she got lost in the mall once, it was terrifying. "Me and my sister were heading to a friends house, but we were attacked by a monster!''

"M-M-Monster!?" Jaune gasped, suddenly looking around with a shivering body. "How did you get away!?''

"I ran really really fast!" Ruby replied.

"Wow! You must be a really good runner to out run a monster!" He had stars in his eyes, admiring Ruby's bravery and ability.

"Uh… Yeah" Ruby suddenly became nervous, she was not used to getting this much praise from strangers. She felt like the first time her art teacher gave her a star for her drawing of a bunny.

"I wish I could be that fast, but I always trip over myself when I try to run, and it really hurts" Jaune crossed his arms with a slight pout.

"I bet you can do it, if you practise more!" Ruby gave him a thumbs up, a smile gracing her lips. "I would know!"

"Yeah!" Jaune returned the thumbs up, causing them to go into a fit of giggles.

Then it came, the female moan from near by, breaking through their giggles and bringing a shocked look to Jaune's face. "It's Nora!''

* * *

"How could you lose him!? He's the loudest here!" Ozpin harshly told Glynda as the group looked around for a trace of Jaune, Ren suggesting that the boy headed over to Nora's.

"I was distracted, alright!" She replied with a raised tone, refusing to look at the man.

"You shouldn't be when you're taking care of children" Ozpin chided, making sure to continue looking to both the children still with him.

"I'm sorry if I can't keep focus when the world's dying around us" Glynda snapped, her hand tightly gripping the gun.

"Just….try not to do it again'' Ozpin reply started as a yell, but faded to a sigh, he didn't want to get angry at Glynda, but his commander's attitude was starting to meld with his own.

Ren took the lead under Ozpin's watchful eye, leading them through alley ways to avoid any more of the creatures, but then they felt it. Earth shattering footsteps from near by, following was another scream (This time they were sure it was a girl) that went hand-in-hand with the footsteps.

"What in Omn's name!?'' Glynda swore under her breath, feeling the whatever it was, come closer.

"I think we've found what has been destroying the buildings'' Was Ozpin's simple reply, as the beast came into view.

It easily towered over two cars atop on another, wider as well, forming a black hulking form. White fur dotted it's chest and back, all attention drawn to it's soulless red eyes. Running away from the beast was a tall blonde haired girl, her legs managing to carry her to the cover of a car, blocking the beast's view of her.

"MONSTER!" Pyrrha screamed with tears at the sight of the beast, grappling her body to Glynda's leg. The woman gently pushed the small girl off of her leg and nodded to Ozpin, before immediately rushing off towards the fleeing girl.

Ozpin couldn't take his eyes off the beast, it's hulking form leaving him utterly stunned. There's no way…There were no reports of creatures this big! Glynda on the other hand made sure to keep herself from looking at in in fear that it's very sight would leave her frozen, she quickly reached the girl (Who was utterly surprised at the appearance of the woman) and without a word took the girl into her arms, now rushing back to the group.

The beast roared at it's prey's escape, continuing to pursue the ones that took the girl away, not ramming it's claw into the building that made up their alley. The group were pushed forward by Ozpin, screaming for them to get into more enclosed spaces to put obstacles in the creature's way.

"No! I can't leave her!'' The blond girl cried to Glynda, her fist besting against the arms that held her.

"Leave who, dear!?''

"My sister! We were separated when the monster came!'' Her screams only enticed the beast as it removed the wall off of it's paw.

Instead of replying, Glynda just kept her head down and rushed into the next alley way, looking to Ozpin who was going around the front. Ozpin found a door that was covered in a layer of rust, with no time to lose he delivered a hard kick to the door, pushing it off it's hinges. Pyrrha rushed inside and stood beside the doorway, on her knees with her face in her palms.

Ren observed the room, holding a small smile as he recognised it, though slightly fading at the sight of the room. "Nora!?"

Ozpin was about to tell the boy to keep his voice down, but was interrupted by the sudden eruption of noise from the next room. There was a chair broken against the wall, producing a great thump, then a familiar scream…

"Jaune!" Both Ren and Ozpin exclaimed at the same time, running forward to burst into the next room. In the room was three significant things. There was a girl in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest, rocking back and fourth muttering "Moma!''. Then there was Jaune on the floor with his arms over his face, shielding it from the sight of the orange haired girl that had crawled ontop of him. Her skin was very dark.

"Help me!" Jaune pleaded to whoever would listen, Ren only watching in horror as his best friend was trying to eat Jaune. Ozpin however had played this out before in his head, as this scene resembled how he met Glynda. He reached for his gun, imagining the nerves that must of hit Glynda as she had to take another life. He looked to Jaune, imagining how he looked like when the woman had pounced onto him back at the store. His breath was slow; his grip was firm, his target clear in his mind. The gun was raised with a bullet ready to fire….

…He pulled the trigger.

"NORA!" Ren screamed in dismay as the bullet penetrated the girl's head, he was scared stiff with emotional shackles keeping him still. He couldn't watch her body go limp, only look to Ozpin in shock and terror in his gaze. "You…You…."

Ozpin looked to Ren, guilt clear from his eyes and growing as big as the pain in his chest. He observed Ren's expression and he knew that he would never forget it.

Jauen only let out whimpers as Nora lay on his body without any sign of movement, her brains now dripping onto his cheek. He pushed the body off with a lot of emotional effort, getting to his feet shakily and approaching Ruby. He couldn't explain what just happened, Nora just..attacked them, then Ruby broke down while Ozpin came in. What…what happened to you Nora?

Ruby looked teary eyed at Jaune with the words still escaping her mouth, as soon as Nora attacked it all hit her. She couldn't take the emotional punch of the memory, so she broke down right there. "J-jaune? Are you safe?"

"I'm good, the grown up saved us" Jaune attempted a smile, but they both knew that it was hollow for the moment. Ruby hugged the boy in an attempt to comfort him, she knew what he was going through for, she had experienced it only a few hours before.

"Jaune, we need to go…" Ozpin's voice was calm, but held the undertone of a near mental break. Jaune brought Ruby to her feet as Ozpin placed a hand on his shoulder, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

As they exited the building, Ren clinged to Jaune for support, firmly displaying an attempt to avoid Ozpin. Ruby trailed in between them with her eye's constantly looking for the beast that had caused her to hide, a little brighter when Ozpin had informed her that the other grown up was protecting her sister.

Ozpin knew that Glynda would be near by, well he hoped for the most part, any thought was made to keep his mind off of what just transpired. He had killed before, he had been force to kill these creatures he once called human, but he had never killed one that was so young… So much life ahead of them, taken away because of this virus…Because of my bullet.

He then wondered to the location of the beast, had it given up on chasing them? Or was it still searching? He hoped it didn't have a good sense of smell, then again, even if it did the group pretty much smell just as rotten as the street now.

The group travelled quietly out into the open, navigating their way to the cover of fallen cars, searching for any clue as to Glynda's whereabouts. They thought that they might be on the right track when they found the sleeve of her shirt ripped off and hanging on a broken and sharp pipe.

A little away they could hear a slight groan of pain, followed by a small swear under a breath as the source got to it's feet. "Are you gonna be okay?'' Came a voice only Ruby recognised.

"YANG!" She cried, pushing past the group to run towards the voice of her sister. The group followed the small girl with a quieter approach, not wishing to meet with the beast again.

"Rubes! I thought you were eaten by the monster!" Yang pulled Ruby into a bone crushing hug, crashing the girl's face into her neck as she held tears of joy, the tears running down Ruby's back.

When the group reached the hugging sisters, they were also relived to see Glynda alive and somewhat well. She was covered with dirt, sweat coating her hair and bringing it out of it's bun, her hands griped her left arm, which was currently wrapped in her other sleeve with a red tinge to it. "Oh thank goodness, you're alive. And you found Jaune''

Ozpin offered an empty smile toward the woman, his mind still heavy with guilt for the moment, though when looking to Ren, he could only think if what the boy was going through. The boy in question simply walked away from Ozpin in a hurry, standing away from the group and waiting for direction.

Glynda approached Ozpin as the group started to go to their respective friend to discuss, she gave Ozpin a sympathetic expression, but her question was answered before it could be asked. "We had a…moment. And I don't think he's going to recover from it soon…''


	4. Chapter 4: Beacon of Hope

After another hour of walking through the city, the souls of the dead nipping at their heels with withered whispers, the group reached the out side of the city and decided to finally rest, surrounding a campfire.

Ren sat on his own away from the group, content with well deserved solitude for as long as he needed. Yang was sleeping close to the fire, her sleeping hand still trying to take hold of Ruby's. Ozpin and Glynda sat opposite each other thinking over today's events, some times glancing at each other to give a reassuring nod.

Ozpin moved to sit beside Glynda, sending her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier"

"It's fine, really. I shouldn't have my head in the clouds at times like this'' Glynda sighed, rubbing her bandaged arm with a bit of a grimace.

"You shouldn't, but you're going to. It's really the only thing you can do to cope with the situation, I guess" Ozpin sat cross legged on a rock, his arms supporting his chin.

"Did you do that any time today? You seemed pretty…focused'' She poked the fire with a stick, sending a few sparks her way.

"No, but that's due to the fact that I haven't had a single damn second of peace to do so since I got here" He smiled slightly, looking up to the sky, imagining how free of crisis it was, it didn't have to deal with all this. _Has to be a hell of a day to be jelous of the damn sky..._

Glynda returned the smile and patted the man on the shoulder, staring into the fire. "Well, here's your peace. Go and enjoy it"

Ozpin looked around the fire, to Yang's peaceful form that held onto to Ruby, to Jaune's seemingly drowsy state, to Pyrrha drawing in the mud with a blank expression and to Ren staring off into the distance. "I won't feel peaceful until I get these kids to safety"

Ruby, after managing to get out of her sister's grip, sat next to a rather depressed Jaune.

He hung his head in confused shame, he didn't know why, but a small part of his mind was telling him to be sad, to be feel guilty for something. Ruby decided that to be the moment to slide next to him on the ground and softly poke his cheek. "Did the Blue Beatle get to you?''

"Blue Beatle?'' Jaune inquired with a blink, craning his head to look at the girl.

"The Blue Beatle, it's a bug that crawls into peoples brains and makes them sad. My momma told me about them a lot"

"Uh, yeah, That must be it'' He almost chuckled at the girl's reply, though he only kept a smile. "Today was eventful…"

"I know, I wish momma was here. She'd make those monsters take to the hills!" Ruby grinned at the memory of her mother, though her smile faded when Jaune asked the question.

"Where is your momma?'' Jaune asked carfully, looking to the little girl curiously.

She was silent for the moment with her gaze casted downwards, her hands rubbing together nervously. "…Yang said that she's gone" Ruby breathed in and then out to relive her sadness, she no longer held a sad look. The memory still stung her emotionally and the noises of that day would probably never leave, but she had her time to sob and she knew that her mother wouldn't want this to keep her down. So she wasn't going to let it show, she'd bottle it up for moma. Because Moma would be back, wouldn't she? Ruby only smiled at Jaune as she hugged herself. "But, it's okay…''

Jaune still held his depressed face, though it also had a slight bit of admiration. _I wish I could be as brave as Ruby…_ He was absorbed in this thought, so much so that he didn't notice Ruby moving and was surprised when a stuffed animal was shoved in his face.

"Meet Dr. Chopper!" Ruby introduced, the doll's head bobbing at her movements. "He's gonna get rid of the Blue Beatle for you"

"Huh... Ruby, I don't know how a girly doll is gon-" The doll placed it's paw on his mouth with the help of Ruby's pinky finger.

Then came a voice of Ruby pushing her voice to be de- I mean, of Chopper as he looked into Jaune's eyes. "Yep, big case of BB"

Ruby gasped at the statement, turning Chopper's head to face her. "What are we going to do, doctor!?"

"I think this calls for…a hug!" Chopper squashed his face against Jaune as his and Ruby's arms wrapped around the boy, making him laugh.

"I think it's working!" Ruby cheered

"I think so!" Jaune smiled at the girl, receiving a generous kiss on the nose from Chopper. Before the doll pulled back to be pushed into Ruby's chest.

"Another successful day for, Dr. Chopper!" Ruby held the animal up to the dark sky with glee, spinning for good measure before turning back to Jaune.

"Thanks, Ruby. I feel better" Chopper now hung in front of Jaune's face again, Ruby holding him up by his armpit. "Ruby, I don't feel bad an-"

"Take him" Ruby said simply.

"You're giving me Chopper?" Jaune replied with a dumbfounded expression.

"Not for keepsies! Just, take him for tonight. And if you ever feel bad you can ask me for him, to help you feel better" She shook the animal in his face, holding out his paw. "It always worked for me when I was sad!"

"Ruby… I don't know what to say…" The doll was thrusted into his arms by a smiling Ruby. "Thank you"

"That's what friends do, if you're sad, I'm sad!" Ruby's grin somehow went wider, though it shrank a little for her to ask. "We are friends, right?"

"The best!"

"Promise?" Ruby held out her pinkie finger, to which Jaune wrapped around his own.

"Promise!"

* * *

It took a three day long trek through the forest to reach the military outpost, the walk was mostly silent as it seemed the Grimm had decided to stay in the cities for now, leaving only Jaune to make awkward small talk with Pyrrha as Yang refused to let Ruby go in fear of losing her again.

They now stood at the foot of a beaten dirt path, stone of old stair ways littering the ground in front of them. The sun held it's gaze with one eye half open, seemingly peeking over the top of a tall mountain curiously at the group, causing some of them to cover their eyes. Ozpin crouched down in front of the path with a inquisitive look, holding his hand over his eyes as shelter as he looked the mountain up and down, before pulling a radio out of his coat pocket.

"Ozpin here, I'm located at the foot of the mountain. Where's our welcome?" He spoke into the radio, a small amount of concern evident.

A voice replied quickly, easing the concerns. "Just continue up the mountain, Ozpin. We've been busy up here and can't spare guards that far down"

Ozpin nodded to him self and put the radio back in his pocket, now pulling himself up to stand as he glances at the group. "Okay, we're going up the mountain. Stay behind me and try and be on your best behaviour"

The group simply nodded in return at his orders and formed a clusily made line behind him, following him step-for-step as he continued up the path, Ruby having a good time jumping on the small patches of stones. "The floor is lava! You're all burning!"

Ozpin kept his eyes ahead and his face calm as he heard Jaune and Yang giggle at Ruby's antics, his felt Glynda beside him, her eyes darting around to get herself familiar with the path. He could see the black blur of an armoured helmet further ahead, poking out of its cover of a large rock to get his attention.

"No irrational behaviour, stand still and quiet" Ozpin told them all sternly, muttering the end of the sentence. "…Or they will shoot you"

The helmet now stood with a body that that decked out in armour also, though the armour was noticeably damaged, the helmet strode towards them as more people made themselves known. Some of them held guns that were trained on the group.

"Oh, so cool!" Jaune quietly exclaimed in awe

"Alright, drop any possible weapon and come with your hands up for inspection'' The person ordered with a female's voice, shaking her gun slightly to gesture to begin.

Ozpin threw his gun to the ground almost instantly, Glynda letting the stun baton drop to the floor. The rest of the group followed suit, Jaune dropping a stick, Yang a button and Ruby a pebble.

They were led up the mountain, finding them selves passing a large amount of people like them, who took a teasing glance at the group before going back to what they were doing. There was a few rusty metal huts to the sides, proving a bit of shade for the people that stood in a small square of space, stabbing a shovel into the ground.

Ruby looked awed at the display of a few more girls at around her age sitting under the shade, their ragged and ripped clothes stained with mud and bruises. Yang pulled her along as the little girl had came to a stop, some of the little girls gazing at the new group curiously.

Pyrrha kept herself close to Glynda as they walked; her small hands entwined with the woman's, her other hand gripping her shoulder due to the uncomfortable atmosphere. She buried her head into Glynda's side at the mere sight of a gun turning in her direction, the woman only patting her head slightly in a nervous manner.

Ren had his arms crossed with his eyes trained on the ground in front of him, ignoring the stares from other people and making sure to stick besides Jaune. Only once did he step away from his routine, glancing up at Ozpin to feel memories flash in his mind, the emotional weight bringing his head down.

The group were soon told to stop when they came to a large storage shed, being the first thing they saw that wasn't old or rusted. The armoured woman came to the entrance to the shed, pulling the door open and looking back to the group.

"Line up! When you get in, strip and stay still for the good doctor!" She commanded, which was immediately heard and followed as the group fumbled into a line.

"What are they gonna do?" Ruby whispered to Ozpin, who she now stood behind.

"They're inspecting us, in case we're infected. Like those in the city" Ozpin replied quietly.

"Oh, they're making sure we're not sick. I don't like doctors, but they always have lollipops at the end" Ruby nodded with a grin.

"If you are sick…. You'll get worse then a lollipop" Ozpin thought sadly, gazing at the small girl.

Ozpin was the first to be called into the shed, forced to strip down for a doctor that had two guards holding him down, fingers prodded bruises as a flow of questions came along. It had been half an hour before Ozpin was told that he was safe and able to redress, stepping out to wait near by for the rest of the group.

Ruby went in next without a care in the world, though came out ten minuets later with a smile and a green lollipop in her mouth (To Ozpin's surprise). Then Yang entered with her cheeks puffed out, coming out rubbing her head with a groan. "I hit the doctor… The big men hit back, they hit my arm…"

Next up was Ren, who was as calm when he entered as when he exited, though purposely standing away from the group (More specifically, Ozpin). Jaune was the most nervous when going in, holding a terrible fear of the armoured men now, coming out twenty minuets later with a few plasters on his arms. When he reached the group he gave Ruby a jelous look. "You got a lollipop!?''

"The man said that I was a good girl…" Ruby stuck her tongue out at Jaune.

"Awww, I want a lolli!" Jaune moaned, for only Ruby to giggle.

"Then you have to behave better!"

Ozpin watched nervously as Pyrrha entered confidently with her arms pushed down to her sides, only to come back out ten minuets later. Now it's just Glynda…Soon after that thought, the woman in question entered the shed with a gulp, leaving an air of heavy silence weighing on them.

Forty Five minuets later and Glynda still hadn't returned from her inspection, worry flooding Ozpin's mind with different reasons. Was she infected? Have they dragged her away to finish her off? He stood next to Ruby, Jaune and Yang, who were playing a game of 'Who can stay on the rock the longest' with Pyrrha and Ren watching. In the end the last one standing was Chopper, who no one had thought to push off the rock, the barrel of laughter that came from Ruby due this is didn't help Ozpin's nerves.

He stared intently at the shed in silence with a blank expression masked his face, noticing that the guards outside the door seemed just as nervous as him. Not once did he stop looking, not until he sees Glynda and his guilt disappears. _I brought her here…I didn't bring her here to die._

The sun slowly started to sink below the horizon, its golden gaze letting off an orange glow as it began its eight hour slumber. A guard approached them and indicated up the foot path with his head. "Take your group to Ironwood, he'll show 'em the ropes while you go to the commander"

"What about Glynda?" Ozpin crossed his arms with a stern tone.

"Who?"

"The blonde woman that was with us" Ozpin stared the man down.

"She's still with the Doc. No one armed has been called in, so that must be good'' The man shrugged at Ozpin before walking away.

Ozpin sighed as his hand curled into a fist, his frustration becoming obvious. "Let's go, children" He stated with his back to them, then turning to the path and walking forward, the rather confused and concerned kids followed him.

The walk started and continued in silence, a void of no sound seemingly passing through everyone present, due to the fear at the rather intimidating guards they passed, or because of Ozpin's obvious worry.

As they walked in depressed silence, more stone buildings came into view, most of them were small and held together by a large amount of wooden boards. There were three people currently dragging wooden stools up to a stone platform, taking a small axe with them in which they used to hack off the wooden legs. When they finished with the stools, they returned to one of the beaten up buildings and later bring out another to chop.

"What is this place?" Yang asked curiously, seeing what seemed to be a whiteboard nailed to a window, sealing the space shut.

"It used to be a school, a damn good one at that." Ozpin replied, still not face or even glancing at the children. "Beacon Academy, now a beacon of hope to those that find it… I hope"

"Urg, I hate school…" Jaune comments, his head thrown back to look at the sky.

"That's only because the teacher never liked your drawings" Pyrrha giggled.

"I'm an artist! She just has no taste" The nine year old protested, a pout spreading on his face as he decided to walk ahead of Pyrrha.

The group came to a stop as a clearing came into view, it was a spread of land that only held a few tables, rows of bed sheets with boxes surrounding them. Four poles were set up to hold a roof-size piece of cloth to shelter the people under. People of various ages were already wondering around the site, some sitting on a bed cloth with eye's full of tears.

"Ozpin!" Called a deep voice, which when Ozpin glanced to it, found that the source of the voice was a tall man, holding short black hair that left a few remnants of skin and hair around his ears.

"Ironwood!" Ozpin smiled at the man, approaching him with his hand held out, to which the man immediately shook.

"I thought you were KIA when you went to Vale" Ironwood chuckled, now with his arms by his side. "I see you brought survivors"

The kids looked up at the mention of their presence and gave a small wave to the man, Ozpin replying "There were a few times that I thought I was that myself, it's gone to hell back there"

"Yes, it's not been good for other cities either. Most have been overwhelmed.." He held a brief expression of sadness, before replacing it with a welcoming smile. "It's good that we can at least save some of the people"

"The city was weird, all the buildings fell over and there was this monster!" Ruby commented, her arms tightly hugging Chopper.

"Yes, there are plenty of monsters…"

"It was massive! Picked up cars and chucked them at us!" Jaune exclaimed, slightly exaggerating what actually happened.

"That's strange" Ironwood shrugged, not really taking the child seriously.

"I was surprised when I saw it to, tore right through buildings like they were paper" Ozpin told the man, giving off a serious look.

Ironwood raised an eye brow, slight concern in his voice "Are you sure?"

"Well, it did collapse an alleyway we were running in" Ozpin replied bluntly.

"That is very…concerning. Was there only one?"

"Only one attacking us, but there could be more. I would inform others just in case"

"Yes..." Ironwood scratched his chin as he stared into space for a second, before he returned his gaze to the children. "Better take the kids to their bedding. They'll get picked for chores tomorrow"

The children looked up at the man with nervous expressions, his height slightly scaring them. Ironwood then asked "Are you guys hungry?"

Ruby and Jaune eagerly nodded, rubbing their own stomachs to emphasize the point; on the way here they had not eaten much, only enough. This caused Ironwood to chuckle at their antics, kneeling down to take a hold of one of the boxes, pushing off the top to reveal a small amount of apples. "It's not much, but it should keep you going"

The apples were passed out between the group, Pyrrha making sure to divide them up evenly, one each, though there was not the amount Pyrrha needed. "There's not enough for Odd to have one"

Ozpin ignored his new nick name and simply smile down at the girl, her face scrunched up in thought as she recounted the apples. "I'm not hungry…"

"We all need to eat, so I'll give you half of mine!" Pyrrha brightened up at her idea, sending Ozpin a pleading look. He was about to tell her that they probably have more somewhere else and that he didn't need an apple, but she was already breaking the apple in half.

"Fine…" Ozpin sighed with a grin as the red head held out the half of the apple for him, which he took and took a bite out of. "Thank you"

Ironwood had to resist breaking down in laughter at the scene, only biting his lip and leading the group to where they would be sleeping for today. They were placed on five identical pieces of bedding, which was basically cloth on the hard ground without any pillows.

Yang had pulled hers and Ruby's bedding closer so that Ruby could lay her head on her sister's shoulder, snuggling up to the blonde. The other children had been quick to fall asleep with loud snores, Ren the furthest away from them while Jaune and Pyrrha slept close.

"Yang…" Ruby whispered to her sister.

"Huh?" Was the simple reply.

"Do you think Blake's gonna be mad that we never got to her place?"

There was a moment of silence, Yang mentally pleading to what ever entity would listen that Blake hadn't been hurt. She remembered looking at Blake's house, the picture so clear in her mind, it was absolutely decimated, probably the handy work of the beast. "I don't think she'll hold it against us"

"That's good, she's nice" Yang smiled at the innocent little girl, Blake had always gotten along with Ruby. "Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we're gonna be okay?"

"Yeah…." She stated as she looked around the camp, already okay with the prospect of surviving with these people. The smile she held as she did this was empty, only stitched on to her new mask to hide the saddened expression. Her thoughts hung onto the last expression of her mother for only a moment before her mind forced the image away, but it didn't take away the feeling... She didn't want to go on, she wanted her eyes to close and never open again to see this world.

Reality had managed to land a hit, it hit hard for her as she saw all the other survivors, most of them the same age as her. All of them either blissfully unaware of their situations or mourning over their ruined lives. Yang looked to Ruby, her sole reason for living now, for enduring this new hell. _Ruby...for you? I'll do anything._ "I think we'll be fine"

With that, Ruby gave Yang a small hug with a smile, closing her eyes as her head rested against the other's shoulder. And after a few seconds, the little girl was fast asleep, her first day of sleep in what was left of a ruined world.


	5. Chapter 5: A bad start

_Jaune blinked as his small feet padded down the hallway at a slow pace, the carpet slightly tickling his feet as individual strands brushed up against his toes with each step. His heart wrenched as he heard sobbing in the other room, his small head looking through a crack in the slightly ajar door._

 _"I just can't take it…My baby…'' Came the low and shrivelled voice of his mother through choking sobs._

 _"There was nothing we could do...'' His father's gruff and deep voice attempted to sooth the crying woman._

 _"I was there… And I just watched as…'' It ended with yet another snob as she shifted in her position._

 _"Mommy?" Jaune spoke up in a nervous tone as he poked his head into the room, his mother sat on her bed with her husband cradling her, she wiped away her tears quickly at the child's sudden appearance._

 _"Jauney…"_

 _"What's wrong?'' The boy approached the bed, looking up at the woman with an awed look._

 _"It's your sister…'' The woman's lip trembled with a threat to burst into tears once more. "She's…gone…''_

 _"On holiday?'' His innocent eye questioned, his mother taking a second before forcing on a fake smile._

 _"Y-yes, Jaune. She's gone on a holiday, a very permanent one. We might not see her again…"_

 _"Oh! So you're lonely now" The little six year old climbed up on his mother's lap to give her a small hug. "Don't worry, me and daddy will always be here!"_

 _The mother hugged her son back with an almost bone crushing force, her eyes looking up to gaze at her husband, who had been speechless the whole time, before joining in on the hug. "I know that Jaune… Thankyou"_

 _"I'm gonna miss her to!" He stated with a small frown, resting his head against his mother's shoulder. "Now who will I make sand castles with?''_

 _"I can help, though you'll have to resist breaking it down" The smile and giggle she gave were fake and empty, only the father noticing._

 _"But that's the best part!"_

The hollow laughter echoed throughout Jaune's mind as he felt Pyrrha's hand grasp his shoulder and shake, a small twang of depression hitting him at the memory. His eyes were forced to open up and face the ray of light that seemed to back hand his vision, causing him to roll over and away from the light as his hands came up to rub out the brief pain.

"Five more hours…" Jaune groaned with frustration, his had now pushing Pyrrha away from his sleeping form.

"But Odd saids that we need to get up now…" Pyrrha replied, easily fending off against Jaune's hand.

The nine year old caved in and stretched out his limbs in every direction, before rocking side-to-side so that he rolled onto his knees. His eyes were half lidded with a few shreds of sleep still left on his eyes as he proceeded to get to his feet, keeping his head away from the light that was already causing him to sweat.

"Is this how every morning goes for you?'' Came the teasing tone of Ruby, who sat away from them beside Yang. "No wonder you need speed!"

Jaune sent a pout towards Ruby as he crossed his arms "You're so mean!"

Ruby only giggled at the boy, rocking slightly on her knees with a large smile. She opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by Yang holding out a small chunk of an apple towards the girl, who in turn opened her mouth to take it from the hand.

"You can't even feed yourself!" Jaune laughed as Ruby was fed the chunks again as if she was a small puppy, her grin never fading.

The girl simply stuck out her tongue at the boy as Yang chuckled slightly "You're just jealous!"

"Now, now. Don't be rude, Ruby'' The voice was approaching them with the footsteps to back it up, the group turning their heads to gaze at a familiar adult.

"Glydi!" Pyrrha chirped, rushing over to hug the woman's leg with a squeal of delight, Ruby followed with the intention of grabbing Glynda's finger with her hand.

"Are you okay? Odd was REALLY worried!" Yang added as Glynda was led over to them, kneeling down beside the blonde haired girl.

"I've been better, the doctor merely had to keep me in on the account of this…" She gestured to her bandaged right arm, the arm that has been cut by the broken pipe. "Seems none of us took the best care of it, it almost got infected, and so the Doctor kindly changed the bandages and sowed it up"

"Awesome!" Jaune cheered for the woman.

"Not to change the subject, but… How has Ren been?'' Glynda asked uneasily, her eyes looking around for the boy in question.

"I've been just fine…'' Ren spoke from his sleeping place under the bedding, his eyes gazing down to not allow anyone else to see his expression.

"Are you sure?" Glynda approached him carefully, with confused stares following her. "If you need to talk about anything, me and Ozpin would be happy to-"

"No! I'm fine. I don't need to talk…not with you, not with…HIM" Ren was visibly shaking at this point, his voice raised to the surprise of Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Ren?" Jaune spoke the boy's name with an inquisitive tone, approaching his friend at a slow pace.

"I don't need to… Look, let's just drop this…please…" Ren breaths deeply before looking at Jaune, a blank mask over his expression.

Glynda spoke up "Of course, Ren. But if you-"

"I don't.."

"IF you ever need us" She then turned to look over the rest of the group with her arms by her side. "Today, you will all have to learn how to cope with this new life, it'll be hard to adapt, but it'll be worth it"

Yang now got to her feet, wiping off dust on her ripped jeans, before giving Glynda thumbs up. "Nothing's too hard for me!"

"Aside from cutting hair…" Ruby muttered, remembering the time Yang tried to give Ruby a hair cut… It was a miracle that the little girl could even still grow her hair.

"It wasn't my fault that the shampoo and the glue looked the same!" Yang protested with a giggle

"It still hurt!" Ruby cried with her hand caressing the spot her old hair used to be.

"Yeah, but you got a ice cream at the end of it" Yang pointed out

"…Worth it!" Yang laughed at Ruby's awed expression at the memory of her favourite treat.

Glynda shook her head at the two with a smile, though a hint of worry was in her eyes. They're way to… happy with the situation they're in. While it was good to smile during hard times, it made Glynda wonder if their ignorance of the situation would hinder them in the future, she did not want to be the one to tell them of how serious this is. They've lost their life… I should let them adapt before I break the news to them… "Alright, enough arguing about mistakes –"

"Mistakes ANYONE could have made!" Yang pointed out

"- we have quite the day ahead of us" Glynda turned her back to the children, gesturing for them to follow in her wake, Pyrrha already clinging to the woman's arm.

Jaune went over to follow beside Ruby and Yang, who both partook in a easy game of teasing Jaune, the boy didn't seem to mind the teasing, though he did laugh nervously a few times. He took a few lingering and curious glances towards Ren, who again walked alone and away from the group with the same empty expression. What's wrong, Ren? Why won't you tell us?

The blonde boy looked sadly to Glynda, hoping that maybe she'd have some sort of idea what was going on with his friend, the woman seemed busy talking with Pyrrha, but did look Jaune's way with a gesture for Jaune to approach. When he did so, Glynda spoke in a low tone as to avoid Ren hearing. "Jaune… Do you know why Ren is acting this way?"

Glynda knew little of what occurred when the group was separated; all she knew was that it had a major impact on Ren. Ozpin had refused to talk about it when she prompted. Jaune scrunched his face into a thinking expression at the question, thinking back to when Nora had started to scare him. "Maybe it was because of Nora, she is his best friend, but she got really sick"

"Sick?" The woman frowned with a spark of realisation appearing in her mind, she knew where this story was going, though that didn't stop her from hoping to be wrong.

"Yeah, she was going really really pale and stuff. Like, sometimes she wouldn't even speak, just groan" It sounded so whimsical coming from Jaune, but that didn't stop Glynda from looking to Ren with a sympathetic expression, dreading to ask her next question.

"What happened to Nora?"

"Well, I went back to her house when we got into the city, I was lost and wanted to see if she was okay. I met Ruby when I got inside" He seemed to hold himself proud for the action of getting into the house by himself. "Though only Nora was in there, and it smelled like a dirty sock! Her mommy and daddy don't usually leave her alone. When I found Nora, she grabbed me"

"Grabbed you? Was she attacking you?"

"I thought that she must of gotten better because she was playing with me, she always hurts me while player. She hurt my arm once, but she gave me her pancakes to make up for it!" Jaune smiled with sparks of excitement as he thought back to the food. "Then everything was weird… Ozpin and Ren came into the room and then this really bad BANG noise hurt my ears and Nora suddenly stopped moving"

"Oh you poor kids…" Glynda muttered under her breath, a small squeeze reminding her that Pyrrha was there, with fresh tears streaming down her face.

"I think she's still there, probably waiting for her mommy and daddy" Jaune shrugged, though suddenly hit by that pang of emotional pain again.

"Could you promise me to talk to Ren?" Glynda asked, thinking that maybe Jaune's innocent nature would help Ren.

"Like a secret mission!?" The boy asked enthusiastically

"Yes, just like that" Glynda put on a fake smile at the boys excitement, ruffling his hair. "Do you think you can do it?"

"I'm here to get the job done!" I was gonna to talk to Ren anyway.

After walking through outpost, the scorching hot surface heating up their toes enough for the walk to hurt, they arrived at an entrance to what seemed to be the abandoned school's great hall. The group were happy to see Ozpin by the entrance in a conversation with two soldiers, looking quite bored by the 'get-me-out-of-here' written over his bored expression.

"Ozpin!" Glynda called over to the silver haired man, who's attention immediately snapped to her with a smile plastered across his mouth. After dismissing the two he was talking to, he walked over to the group at a brisk pace, chuckling as he reached them.

"Glynda, you're okay" He stood for a second, seemingly thinking about a friendly gesture to commit, before deciding to simply hold his hand out for a firm hand shake. "I was starting to think you were-"

"Me too" Glynda interrupted, grasping his arm with a small nod. "The way the doctor looked at me when he saw my arm made my heart stop, but it was just a small wound…"

"A small wound that requires an arm length bandage?" Ozpin chuckled again, looking to the woman's bandaged up arm. "I guess my medical skills were not as good as I thought''

"Don't worry!" Ruby cries, jumping up and down on the spot, holding up Chopper. "Doctor Chopper makes mistakes some times too!"

"Yeah, but he's trained medical personnel" Ozpin laughed, playing along as the seven year old swung her doll around. "He has no excuse"

The girl gasped at this, turning Chopper to face her as she pressed a finger against his nose. "He's right, Chopper! We might need to take you back to school!"

"It's lucky that we're at a school then" Pyrrha sent Ruby a small smile, her eyes now red from her previous tears.

"Alright" Ozpin looked around at the group after a small release of breath, clasping his hands together and looking at them confidently. "You all need to head into that hall over there, unfortunately without us. Do whatever the adults in there ask you to do and stay together"

"Why can't you two come with us!?" Pyrrha asked loudly, her head tilted upwards to look up at Glynda

"Me and Glynda have other duties, due to our age" Ozpin replied, smiling sadly toward the young red head. "You'll be okay"

Pyrrha nodded in understanding and let go of Glynda, turning to stand beside Jaune and the others, who now looked nervously towards the group of teenagers and children entering the hall.

"We'll be fine!" Yang proclaimed, taking Ruby's hand and dragging the girl towards the entrance "It's just meeting new people"

"You say it like that's a good thing!" Ruby whined as she dragged, the others not far behind her.

The room inside was not as packed as you would expect, there were only around forty people around the room in total, only a few of them were full grown adults in armour. The odd one out however was a rather scruffy looking and pale man in the front, his spiked back long hair was as green as grass, fogged up spectacles covering his eyes. He was clearly tired, shown plainly by his ruffled and crumpled button up grey (Probably used to be white) shirt, loose hanging tie and ripped brown jeans.

He seemed to be waiting for everyone he was expecting to enter the room by the way he kept glancing to the door at every new arrival and writing down on a piece of paper.

"It's so big…" Ruby exclaimed in awe "Why don't we get to sleep in here?"

"Maybe you should ask them?" Jaune suggested

"I will!" Ruby turned to march towards the nearest adult, only to promptly crash right into the small frame of another girl who promptly gave out a scream of frustration at the sudden collision. The small girl shook at the pang of pain that screamed as she hit the ground, now looking up at the person she crashed into.

The girl seemed around ten to Ruby, she was rather tall for her age as she even outgrew Yang along with a pale complexion that matched the long white hair the fell down her back. Everything about the girl reminded Ruby of those princesses inside fairy tales, bright white clothing (From long sleeved shirt to long skirt) that hurt Ruby's eyes. her posture that of someone who was constantly impatient. Though unlike the sweet and innocent princesses in the books, this one was rather furious.

"Watch where you're going, you dolt! What is wrong with you?'' The snow haired girl almost screamed at Ruby, her face spread out into a large and intimidating glare.

"W-well, I was-''

''No, I don't want to hear it'' The girl crossed her arms, her nose turned up as if Ruby's mere presence disgusts her.

''H-huh?'' Ruby blinked in confusion at the girl, having no idea in the slightest as to what in the world was going on with the girl and why she seemed to immediately dislike Ruby.

''Well?'' She looked to the little girl expectantly, her foot tapping furiously.

''What?''

The girl simply emitted a sigh of disappointment as she shook her head in shame, crossing her arms and turning away from Ruby slightly ''I was waiting for an apology. Again, you dolt''

Ruby shook a small amount as a few tears threatened to break out of her eyes, biting her lip harshly while letting out a a few quiet whimpers at the harsh words ''I-I-I don't understand... Why are you being so mean?''

''Of course YOU wouldn't understand!'' The girl tutted to herself without seeming even a little it sorry for Ruby, turning to stomp away from the girl in a fit of frustration, but Yang's voice called out to stop her.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?'' Yang now stood in front of Ruby as Jaune helped the girl to her feet, the blonde's glare seemed to hold a spark that could set the area around her on fire.

''Hopefully somewhere with much smarter and pleasant company'' Her tone was smug, which only seemed to intensify the glare that Yang sent burrowing into the girl.

''Apologise to her, right now!'' Yang spoke with a cold voice, her hand clenched into a fist as she looked to Ruby. Nobody hurts my sister, emotionally or physically!

''Me!? She should be apologising to me for almost knocking me to the gr-'' Her sentence was interrupted by her own surprised cry as Yang's fist connected with her face, knocking the girl straight to the floor with a nice black mark on where the punch landed.

''APOLOGISE!'' Yang cried at the girl, others around the room to look at the commotion, two adults already sighing with annoyance and making their way over.

''Y-you hit me..'' The girl exclaimed in a stutter, astonished at the action as she gazed up at Yang.

''Say you're sorr-'' This time it was Yang who was cut off as she was grabbed by the collar and pulled violently to face an adult, the woman's glare obvious.

"What the hell is going on here!?" Her voice was that of the woman that had ordered them around when they arrived, still the same amount of anger still in it as she shook Yang, seemingly not caring if she hurt the girl.

"S-she attacked me!" The white haired girl cried now sitting on the floor with her hand nursing her now black eye.

"You made Ruby cry!" Jaune retorted in a nervous squeak, attempting to give Yang a confident nod.

"Yeah!" Pyrrha agreed, her hands on her hips.

The woman growled at Yang, her already firm grip tightening on the collar. "She could be calling you an accident for all I care, there will be no fighting in my outpost. If you want to fight, take it out there with the Grim!" She shook the young girl again "Do you understand!?"

Yang felt like she was being berated by her parents, though her parents wouldn't be so forceful about it, so she simply nodded slowly at the question.

"That is quite enough, Miss Stonewall!" Came a deep, rushed, but calm voice from behind 'Stonewall'. Looking towards the voice, Yang saw the same tired man that had been standing at the front, his green hair looking no less ridiculous.

The woman relinquished her grip and stood straight to face the man, while they couldn't see her expression, the group could tell that she was glaring at the man. ''It's enough when she understands"

"I'm sure that you can see from her expression that she most defiantly understands and wouldn't dare to repeat her actions'' The man looked to Yang expectantly. "Isn't that right, miss?''

Yang nodded quicker this time, the man then turning back to Stonewall and shrugging, the woman just sighed at the man and began to walk away. "I just want you to control your children, Oobleck"

When the woman was gone, the man looked over the group and took a generous sip of the coffee in his hands, clearing his throat before speaking. "I'm terribly sorry about that, there is a reason that she wasn't given the job of watching over the younglings!"

They only now noticed that his voice seemed to be rather quick and near posh-like, causing Jaune to lean into Ruby and whisper. "He talks funny" To which Ruby nodded in agreement, still rubbing her eyes.

"Now, I have no clue as to what you two were quarrelling over, but I must insist the opinion of Miss Stonewall in less fighting. We're in tough times now, co-operation is the key to our very survival" Everything the man said seemed dramatic due to his tone, his hands and feet never going still for even a second.

"We're sorry..." Yang mumbled out, her hand to her sides as she looked up to Oobleck with the most innocent expression she could muster.

"I would advise that you attempt to not repeat this! Now, Miss Schnee, are you quite alright?" His head now turned to look to the fallen girl, who had gotten to her feet.

"I-I'm… Fine" She was obviously not fine, but Yang guessed that her overwhelming anger numbed the pain. The girl then added on grumpily "And it's Weiss…"

"I will be announcing each other your roles in this new society soon, for now I do suggest that both of you try to avoid one another for the moment" He took another gulp of his piping hot brown liquid, looking between the two girls expectantly, the reply was Weiss nodding and stalking off with one last glare sent to Yang. "Good day!" And with that, he was gone.

Yang let out a sih of relief and turn to Ruby, immediately scooping the girl up in her arms. "Are you okay!? The crash didn't hurt, right?"

"Yaaaang, you're embarrassing me!" Ruby moaned, her tears long forgotten as she was caught in Yang's arms.

"What's wrong with her?" Pyrrha asked Jaune, referring to Weiss who was now at the other end of the room. "Why is she so rude?"

Jaune shrugged his shoulders "Maybe she's having a bad day?"

"That's no reason to be mean to poor Ruby!" Pyrrha crossed her arms, annoyance gracing her features. Jaune had now changed his gaze, moving it to look directly at Ren who now stood beside the window.

"What's up with Ren?" Jaune's voice was concerned, his face full of confusion, Pyrrha knew what was wrong with Ren as she had been tearing up over the event when Glynda brought it up. "He looks so sad"

"Jaune…" She briefly considered telling Jaune about Nora's... departure, but when looking at those innocent and confused eyes, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "Maybe you should ask him…"

Jaune nodded in agreement, looking to Ren with a determined stare. "I will, then I'm going to make him smile again!"

* * *

 **Hm, I feel as if I had some bad writing with Weiss, what's your opinion?**


	6. Chapter 6: A Shoulder to Cry On

"This board shows the various parts of this outpost that require maintenance of any kind, this can range from farm work to boarding up defences. You will be split up into groups depending on where you sleep and your age group"

Oobleck explained this all to the crowd of confused youth, the teenagers nodding with understanding (Though some shared a groan at the prospect of work), though Ruby only understood that this was some sort of daily chore for the group. The board was a huge square of old wood, glaring down at them with various lower-case and Upper-case letters ranging from Aa to Cc, the size of the letter representing the age group, with the big capital A for thirteen and above. The small a for nine – twelve and the smallest a reserved for Six – Eight.

There was a table of the week with each variation of all the letters down the side, different coloured cards stuck to the spaces. It was explained that each colour represented a general job, Green for work with the vegetation, Red for repairs, Blue for Look out duty and Yellow for defence maintenance. "Some of these jobs will require you to learn new things, but that shouldn't discourage you, just remember that every little helps this outpost survive longer''

A hand was raised to gain the attention of the man, to which he pointed to the person, who asked "What's the black card for, sir?''

"Ah, I almost forgot" He thanked the young man for bringing it up and pointed to the black card on the board, which seemed to only be with the uppercase letters. "This is the job of Scavenging. You'll be exiting the safety of the outpost and heading out into the dangers of the world, braving the possibility of certain death to bring us back supplies''

Ruby looked up to Yang with a rather scared look, her lip trembling. "C-certain d-d-death?"

"As the nature of these particular jobs are rather deadly, only uppercase groups will be embarking on them'' This caused a wave of relived sighs throughout the crowd, Ruby's group in particular.

"You will now be split up and taken to your chores for the day, I wish you all good luck" With that, Oobleck disappeared through the door behind the stage in only a few seconds. At this action, the armoured people started to walk amongst the room, dividing up people into groups. Luckily for today, Ruby was in the same group as Pyrrha, unluckily…

"Oh, not you!" Weiss groaned as she was forced to stand beside the small girl, an irritable expression plastered on her face.

* * *

Jaune, Ren and Yang now stood together in a group of unknown faces that seemed just as nervous as they were staring up at the tall armoured man who had taken to counting the amount of people present. Yang sighed with a frown clear on her features, looking to Jaune who only gave her a small thumbs up and a small smile.

"I'm sure Ruby will be fine, she's a good girl'' He told her confidently, his smile growing. "And I'm sure Odd or Glynie will be there to keep her out of trouble!"

Yang waited a few moments in silence, allowing thoughts to pass through her mind with her overwhelming need to protect Ruby tried to disagree with Jaune, but it settled with just sleeping at the pit of her stomach with a pool of worry. "You're right, let's just worry about ourselves for now''

Jaune nodded again before looking back to the important looking man that stood in front of them all, his feet feeling slightly uncomfortable with the uneven and muddy ground.

"Alright, that should be all…" The man seemed to think aloud before he cleared his throat as loud as he could, in a attempt to look intimidating as he looked down at the children. "While food supplies from out side are limited, the food possibilities here are unlimited here as long as we give it our all. Today your job will be to act as farmers and plant our food source, which in the coming months will grow with the right amount of nurturing. Get into pairs, one person to take a rake and another to plant the seeds''

After a few minuets of the man demonstrating how to use the tools (And cautioning everyone not to cut themselves on the rakes), before ordering them to form pairs. Jaune made sure that he was with Ren as Yang was taken by a random person, He needed to talk to his friend and this was the perfect time.

The first half an hour of their new job was spent in silence as everyone was just trying to get used to using the farming tool, Ren and Jaune agreed to switch positions every ten minuets, currently Jaune was raking the dirt while Ren was planting seeds.

It was getting unbearable for Jaune, no words were exchanged aside from a low grunt to indicate that they were switching, with a few saddened looks sent each other's way.

"R-Ren…" The reply was a grunt to indicate that the boy was listening, though not even turning his head upwards and away from his work to look at Jaune. "What's wrong?''

"I'm fine, Jaune" His reply was instant and obviously rehearsed; Ren had been waiting for Jaune to inquire about his condition for a while.

"You're not, you've been acting strange and mopey ever since we left the city" Jaune responded with a despaired tone, turning his head away from his friend.

"I'm just…stressed, okay?" Ren walked away to start raking the next row of dirt, Jauen following slowly behind.

"It's more then that, we can all see it… I don't like seeing you blue" Ren stood with his back to Jaune, his shoulder's we shaking slightly.

"C-can…Can we just drop this? I don't want to ta-"

"It's about Nora, right!?" Jaune exclaimed, pressing his fist into his palm to emphasise his point.

"Jaune…don't…'' His shoulder's shook again, he glanced to the side, looking over the other children that were a bit away from them.

"I will!" Jaune rested a hand ont eh boy's shoulder, biting his lip for a second. "You're sad and I hate seeing you sad, you're my friend, so if you'd just tell me what's wrong. I mean, Nora wouldn't wa-"

He stopped talking as Ren spun around in one quick motion, grasping Jaune's shoulders to force the other boy to look directly into Ren's tear stained eyes. "Nora is dead!"

Silence fell between them with the scraping of other people's rake's acting as the only sound between them, Jaune wearing a face of utter shock and confusion. "D-dead…?" The word struck a chord in his mind, as if he should know the meaning, but all he knew was that the word caused tears to fall from his eyes.

"Yes, dead! Departed, gone, not of this world….No longer here…Never coming back" The boy fell to his knees with his hair now covering his face.

"S-she'll be back, she's just on a vacation" Jaune argued, remembering the words of his mother that he had taken to heart, it felt strange to say the words. It was as if he was trying to convince himself more then Ren.

"She's never coming back! Her life is gone, don't you get it?" He slammed his fist into the dirt while gritting his teeth together tightly, a mixture of anger and fear bubbled up inside him. "All because of one bullet…because of him….We should of never gone with Pyrrha. I should of stayed!"

 _It all came to him in an instant, the image that constantly flashed in his mind as a brief and confusing nightmare. Nora was on top of him, her smiling face was almost blindingly bright, her glow making Jaune struggle to get his hands to use as shelter from the light._

"Gone….because of the bullet'' Jaune blinked tears as it all came flooding to him

 _A growl broke through the glow and Jaune realised that he couldn't move, the once smiling girl wouldn't let him. Her smile had faded now, a depressed look falling over her as her skin seemed to change…darken. Her teeth started to stretch and Jaune began to feel her grip causing a lot of pain, the crash of the door sounding over the growl._

"She…she attacked me" Jaune spoke it a low whimper, Ren now looking up at him.

 _Nora would not get off of him no mater how much he pleaded for her to, she scared him now, everything about her was gone. Her smile, her skin, her attitude, her eyes, everything that made her that hyper active little girl. Her expression was that of hunger, without a care in the world for his feelings. 'Why are you doing this!?"_

"Then it happened…"

 _There was a scream of words that Jaune couldn't make out, 'Nora' now looked quickly towards the door to send out a snarl that made Jaune shiver in his place. Then came a sound that threatened to destroy Jaune's ears, the sound that would haunt his mind, the sound of a bullet slamming into the side of his friend's head causing her body to fall towards the ground in a limp heap. The image of her limp and lifeless body was accompanied with the gunshot, the sound seemingly on repeat with the image._

"She's dead…Nora's dead…" Jaune felt the tears sting as he finally realised the source of his hidden pain, he collapsed to his knees the same as Ren, tears falling hard. "Nora…Jane…Mommy and Daddy too, they're all dead aren't they?"

Ren's only response to the query was to move closer to the young boy and wrap his arms around his shoulders, pulling Jaune into a hug, tears flowing like a water fall down each of their backs now.

"I'm sorry Ren…I'm so, so sorry" Jaune whimpered

"I don't want to talk about it…I never want to think about it…" Ren whispered, clutching Jaune's shirt.

"Me neither…"

"Then let's never talk about it again…Right?" Ren pleaded, to which he felt Jaune nod.

"But, won't that only make it worse?" Jauen questioned quietly.

"It might, but this problem is mine. I will deal with it on my own" Ren reached down to grasp Jaune's hand, gripping it very tightly. "It's not the problem of any other the others, not Glynda and not….HIM"

"Okay, Ren. If you really want to" Jaune finally stopped crying, biting his trembling lip.

"Thank you…"

* * *

"Oranges for the green box…" Weiss listed off in a bored drawl as she handed Ruby a few oranges from the ground, the girl in turn took the fruit and approached the table of boxes. She looked at the green box and made a small unimpressive expression, placing the oranges in the orange box.

"There…that's where you belong" She told the small fruits as if they could hear her and talk back, patting them on the head with a giggle.

"Are you seriously talking to fruit?" Weiss sighed, shaking her head as she reached for the remainder of the small foods and approached the table.

"What's wrong with that? I'm just calming them down, they're gonna be scared at being taken from their home" Ruby giggled, Weiss looked to the orange box with a frustrated look.

"I said put them in the green one!" She exclaimed to Ruby, taking the oranges and proceeding to pile them into the right box.

"But they're oranges, they look better in the Orange box" Ruby moaned loudly, only to be silenced by the other girl's icy glare.

"We're not trying to make them look pretty, we're trying to organise them!" The snowy haired girl snapped at the source of her annoyance.

The two had been taken to a small field of already grown fruit and vegetable, forced into pairs and tasked with removing the food from their plants and loading them into colour coded boxes. Others had been given the job of pulling out the remainder of the plants, so that they do not over grow. So far the two had only gotten into fight after fight over the smallest of things, this was around the best excuse to argue they had for the moment, though you couldn't really call it an argument as Weiss was the only one raising her voice; Ruby only giving a smile, or looking down at her feet guiltily as she attempted to calm the other girl down.

"I was just trying to make it fun…" Her shoulders were hunched, she bit her lip and held her hands behind her back, this is what she always did when ever someone seemed angry with her.

"It's work" Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby's hunched form, finishing her transfer of the oranges. "It's not supposed to be fun''

"We're gonna be doing it for a while from what I could understand, so why not make it enjoyable?" The girl looked towards the Orange's new home with a frown.

"Not for me, my dad will be here soon to take me away!" Weiss stated proudly with her arms crossed, to which Ruby looked at her in awe.

"Really!?"

"He always does" A smirk came to her lips, looking down on Ruby with her head tilted slightly. "If I frown, he'll come running to make me smile"

"Wow! He sounds like an amazing dad!" Ruby smiled, leaning on the table with full intent to listen. "He must really love you!"

For a brief moment, Ruby thought she saw a pained expression enter Weiss's features, but as quick as it appeared, it disappeared without a trace. "Well…Yeah. He's a dad, he loves me so much! Sometimes my sisters get jealous"

"My dad was always gave me and my sis equal love, saids that we're too good to out do each other in his eyes" The small girl seemed a bit giddy when talking fondly of her father.

"Really? Then why isn't he here with you?" Weiss asked with a small amount of curiosity.

Ruby sighed as her finger came to her chin, her head tilting to the side with a small frown. "Moma said that had something really important to do…. We havn't seen him in months"

Weiss for once since their first meeting lost her frustrated and hatful look, giving Ruby a glimmer of sympathy. "I'm sure you'll see him again…"

"I know he's probably dead…" Weiss was surprised by the small girl's words, shocked that such a young girl could state it. "Like my momma…" Her tone didn't seem to be hinting at tears to come, it was just mournful with a hint of regret.

"That's… hard, I guess" Weiss was at a loss of semi-comforting words, standing still and staring at Ruby.

"But that's okay, they needed to move on, I think… I like to think that maybe, in some way, they're looking out for me. It makes it easier to think about it…"

"I…" Weiss tone was soft for once, closing her eyes briefly to take in the girl's words before opening her eyelids to the sight of the small girl moving the oranges again. "I said the green!"

"Please!" The girl pleaded, a pout on her face that removed any hint of the previous frown.

Weiss sighed at the girl's expression, shaking her head with a hidden smile. "Fine… But the berries are going in the same box!" Ruby only smiled up at the girl, who scowled back with teeth bared. "And take that stupid grin off fo your face…"

"I'm Ruby Rose" She held out her hand cautiously towards Weiss, extending her fingers.

The ice queen paused for a moment, looking over the innocent girl one more time, before grasping the smaller hand softly. "Weiss Schnee"


	7. Chapter 7: Five Years later

Ruby groaned when she felt the tip of someone's foot ram into her side, this was followed by an impatient growl as the foot came again. "Urg…Buzz off, Chopper!"

"Excuse me!?" The voice that roared at her did not seem to be Chopper, unless he suddenly became female and overwhelmingly whiny.

Ruby begrudgingly opened her silver eyes to gaze at the foot that was determined to destroy her side, it was a white shoed foot, by the looks of it, the shoe was the best you could get during these times (No one thought heels would be of use). Her gaze moved up the body of the owner lazily, soon finding herself looking at the very angry face of Weiss Schnee.

It had been five years since Ruby first slept on the uncomfortable cloth, she had gotten use to the bumps in the hard ground, but she would not just ignore being kicked in the ribs. "What the heck, Weiss!?"

"Ah, you're finally awake" Weiss stood there with a smug look, her hip pushed to the side to emphasize her smugness.

"Yeah, some meany was kicking me in the ribs" The raven haired girl pouted, sitting up now as she pouted with her arms crossed.

"It was the only way" Weiss shrugged in reply, turning on her heel to face away. "Now hurry up, we have work to do!"

"But that's not until five…" Ruby groaned, still half asleep at this point.

Weiss rubbed the side of her nose with four fingers, letting out another sound annoyance "It's six"

The small girl leaped up from her position on the bed with wide eyes, her hands entwined with her hair. "Goodwitch is gonna kill me!"

"This is why we need to go, now" The white haired teen stated with her hands on her hips, eyes looking down to glare at the small girl.

"Give me a second, I need to make sure Chopper is good" Ruby got on her hands and knees to inspect the old doll that sat on a empty box in front of her bedding.

"Seriously? You still have that old Childs doll?" Weiss almost laughed.

"Hey, we do not use the D word!" Ruby covers Chopper's ears, holding him close and facing him away from the 'mean lady'. "Besides, he's my friend!"

"Yes, when you were four! Now, it's just childish" Weiss exclaimed, her gaze now switching to glare at the doll.

"I'm Twelve now! Yang said that still technically makes me a child" Ruby retorted, attempting to hide Chopper away from the angered Schnee.

Weiss sighed with her palm meeting her face. "And since when is that babbling ape someone to take advice from?"

Ruby reached up (Being much shorter then Weiss) to grab the other girl by the collar, angry clear from her expression and yell. "Don't talk about my sister that way!"

"Get your hands off of me!" Weiss growled back at the girl.

"Then take it ba-"

"If you're going to tear each other apart, I would prefer that you do not do it in the resting area. Other's who have just returned of chores are trying sleep" The voice that interrupted Ruby was calm, with a hint of amusement held.

The voice caused Ruby to leg go of Weiss's collar and step away from her source of frustration, turning to face the voice with a wide grin. "Ozpin, you're back!"

The man who brought her here in the first place was currently holding a coffee mug with boiling water in (Sadly, Coffee was only for special occasions), his once silver hair now leaned more to a darkened gray, his chin holding a few small stray hairs of a growing beard. "And I return to find you both in yet another fight"

He let out a sigh to which caused Ruby to stare at the ground, she hated hear Ozpin or Glynda sigh like that, especially when she caused it. She didn't want to always get into fights and arguments with Weiss, but the Ice Queen was just so infuriating sometimes, even after they sort of connected a few years back.

 _"Get out of my way!" Weiss yelled at the seven year old that stood in her way._

 _"Take back what you said!" The girl's glare seemed to drill through Wiess._

 _Yang's hand rested on Ruby's shoulder "Ruby, don't need to yell at h-"_

 _"She called you an uneducated basement dweller!"_

 _"-That a girl, kick her butt!"_

"She insulted Yang!" Ruby stated with a finger pointed at her enemy as Ozpin approached, while Weiss and Ruby's relationship wasn't as venomous as it was before, they still were ways away from liking each other.

"I called her an ape, that's a mild word compared to all the colourful vocabulary I could have used" Weiss retorted immediately, her arms now crossed.

"Can't you two at least try to get along?" Ozpin asked with a tired tone. (This would be around the forty fifth time he's asked)

"I have tried, but she's just so...Her!" Ruby racked her brain for better wording, but only came up short.

"Oh, such words Miss Rose" Weiss rolled her eyes with a light chuckle, but in Ruby's ears it was not pleasing to hear, more depressing. "And I don't need to get along with her; I just need to her to stay out of my way. But SOMONE keeps forcing me to work with her''

"We're a community that only survives on co-operations, if we continually go at each other's throats, the consequences will be dire'' He tried to speak softly, with a serious look across his face.

Ruby's mouth turned into a frown at Ozpin's word, her head now hanging in shame, not even raising it when the man's hand ruffled her hair.

"I know you're only twelve, raised in an environment that you should of never needed to meet. But, you have to try for me, okay?"

"I know, Ozpin…" Ruby finally looked up at him with a mournful look, which he replied with a smile. "It's just that Yang is the only family I have left…"

Ozpin drops to a kneel beside Ruby with his hand resting on his knee, a thoughtful look on his face. "Yes, you have Yang. You also have me, Glynda, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren" At this Ruby gave a small nod, wondering where did was going as Ozpin looked to the impatient Schnee that was at least polite enough to not listen in on their conversation. "But, she doesn't have anyone, does she?"

The small girl nodded again with a frown, her teeth digging into the side of her lip, eyes holding a small spark of understanding. "You're right…"

"While that doesn't justify name calling, it does give insight and a reason to maybe be a bit more forgiving?" Ozpin raises an eyebrow, holding an inquisitive gaze.

"I promise I'll try…" Ruby crossed her arms with a small huff.

"Now, you have chores to do" Ozpin stated while taking a sip of his water, his mouth already crying out in protest at the lack of coffee. He got to his feet and sent Ruby a small comforting smile, the little girl giving him one last hug.

"YOU'RE RIGHT, WE'RE LATE!" Weiss screamed "Goodwitch is going to throw us to the Grimm!"

"I think you're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? She won't mind if you're a few minuets late"

"We're now an hour and five minuets late'' Ruby pointed out to the man, who simply sipped his water.

"…I'll say something nice at your funeral" Ozpin then immediately began to walk away at a quick pace.

Weiss took a hold of Ruby's arm and began to fiercely drag the girl away from her bedding, Ruby was at least thankful that she had time to store Chopper in the box, but was dreading the afternoon ahead of her. This is gonna be the worst day ever…

* * *

 _This is the worst day ever…_ Jaune inwardly groaned to himself, his eye glancing at his current state. His dirty green shirt drenched in sweat from the sweltering heat, bruises and cuts littering his body from the knee up. A large tear on his side where he accidentally cut himself with a broken bottle. "I wish Ruby was here…"

His need for his best friend at the moment stemmed from his utter fear at the job at hand, knowing that his favourite little raven head would have made the situation lot less scary. He was currently lying on his back atop the rotting floorboards of a barley standing house, he kept his breathing low and made sure to make himself as small as possible from his position, it was uncomfortable, but safe.

Ever noise set him off into a panic that caused his heart to thump loudly, a small creak of the wind rattling against the door would give him the need to say his prayers, every drop of water from a broken tap would make him jump slightly. Parinoia was plaguing him like a demon deep inside his body, taking every minuet to draw out his agony in a slow torture.

He had a right to be this way, he was told that this feeling was common for first time scavenger's, he'd laughed it off before back at camp, thinking it would be easy. But he found out the hard way that the prospect of death being at every corner turned out to be a bigger danger then the creatures that would cause it, something could be hiding in the dark with it's claws already around Jaune's neck and he would never know. The others better get back soon…

From the day he turned thirteen, he was trained for this with lessons on firearms, navigation and how to hide, but he was not prepared for this, it was impossible to be. Two days prior, he and Yang were put in a group after the black card was placed on their letter on the board, then they were assigned two adults to guide them on the mission. Currently they had spent a whole day locked up in this old house with no given time of when they would leave, just that they'll do what they need 'When the time comes'.

The others were investigating the outside of the house for any weak points; the two adults could not stress the importance of double checking ever square inch, which included leaving Jaune alone inside hoping that the house was empty.

He almost jumped up into the ceiling when he heard footsteps approaching, his hands shaking with panic as he heard the sloppy steps. Each foot forward seemed to stumble slightly, judging from the small collisions with the wall that could be hear, it was almost like listening to a drunk person trying to walk in a straight line. Nonononononono, it's those things! They've come to finish me off, I should have never come on this mission, I should of pretended to be sick or something! Jaune couldn't think straight as the fear at the possibility of meeting a Grim (What everyone had just taken to calling the creatures), he found himself hitting his head on the wall as he scrambled to find a hiding place, already hearing whatever it was fiddle with the door knob. When the boy couldn't find any place that was suitable for his need for hiding, he found tears stinging his eyes as he collapsed to the ground on his knees, shielding his face with his arms in hopes that it would be a quick death. The door opened.

"Jauney boy…What the hell are you doing?" Came Yang's voice from the door way as she fully pushed the entrance open, looking down at Jaune with a curious glint in her eye. "Did you accidentally hit yourself in the privates again?"

"Y-Yang!" Jaune looked up from his fallen position, relief crossing his face as if she had been an angle. "Oh thank O- Hey, I told you to stop calling me that!"

Yang rolled her eyes with her back now leaning on the doorway, a smirk on her lips. "Okay, I'll think of a new nick name"

"Oh no…"

"What do you think about Jaune-Jaune? JJ? Arc? Mop head? Jane?" She listed off names from her fingers, making Jaune doubt that this was all off of her head.

"What have I done…?"

"They're not that bad, Jaune!" Yang patted him on the back with a chuckle. "Why were you on the floor anyway?"

Jaune's head now hung in shame as his shoulders came down. "I thought that you might have been a Grim…"

"If it was a grim, you wouldn't have a chance to be scared!" The female voice that berated him in a low tone from the hallway, coming from behind Yang. "Get up off the floor!" It was the angry tone of Stonewall.

This was a woman that seemed to have a grudge against everybody in the world, though Jaune believed that she had a special grudge against himself and his friends. Which is why Jaune was confused that Stonewall was allowed to take them on a mission that held a possibility of death.

Yang helped Jaune to his feet with a roll of her eyes, the boy in question tried his best to look like he wasn't just cowering on the floor, hanging his hands by his side. "S-s-sorry, Mam…"

"Apologise when we get back to Beacon, for now you should try and makes yourself useful" The woman wore the same armour that all the adults seemed to wear now, her head covered by the helmet, it was a rare occasion to actually see her face.

"You talk like there's Grim knocking down our front door" Yang commented with a yawn as she took a look around the room.

"You're too comfortable, these little bastards can come from any where" The woman growled, forcefully grabbing Yang to turn her towards the door. "You're never safe in this world, anything can and will kill you"

"Okay, I get it" Yang held her hands up as if to shield her face from Stonewall's words, somewhat justified as she was sure that the woman's glare could burn through objects.

"Good, now start working" Stonewall gestured to the empty looking house, before turning her gaze to Jaune with a disapproving edge. "Did you at least find anything?"

"Find anything? The house is empty!" The boy exclaimed to the woman, spreading out his arms to gesture to the whole house. "I spent more time wondering what was taking you two so long"

He swore he heard the woman mutter angrily under her breath 'Useless!' as she sharply turned, her back to the two teenagers and her gun propped on her shoulder. "Then you won't mind looking again!"

"I found something!" Yang exclaimed from the other room, prompting Stonewall to drag Jauen through the room and into the other, where Yang stood in front of a locked door. "Could have valuable stuff inside"

"I thought you said the house was empty" Stonewall looked to Jaune with a glare, if looks could kill, Jaune would be looking like soup at the moment.

"T-the door was locked and I didn't want to tell you about a door we can't open" Jaune responded immediately.

"Can't open, huh?" Stonewall looked curiously over at the door, before approaching the wooden rectangle and inspecting it. After a few seconds of tension filled contemplation, Stonewall raised her foot and promptly kicked the door down. "You were saying?"

"I'm only fourteen…" Jaune mumbled as he and Yang peaked into the room. Inside there was a corpse of a tall man sitting against the wall, a bullet hole in his head and a gun in his hand, his head tilted up to look up at the ceiling. Beside the dead man there lay a small backpack, the top of a water bottle could be seen, indicating for possible goodies inside.

While Stonewall pushed her way into the room to grab the back pack, Jaune found himself in the corner throwing up the few lunches he had at the sight and odour of the corpse.

"Jaune…" Yang started uncertainly, putting a hand on his back. "I thought of something"

"Huh?"

"I hope you like your new name, Vomit Boy!"

* * *

"No, that one looks like a dog!" Ruby exclaimed, pointing up to the lone cloud in the blue sea of the rather clear sky. "Look at the curves, and there's the tail"

"You said that was an elephant a few minuets ago" Weiss pointed out with her arms crossed, glancing over the edge of the small box the two were in, only just paying attention to the little girl's antics.

"Well…Yeah, but if you look at it upside down…" Ruby was only trying to entertain and distract herself from the boring nature of the job; she and Weiss were a pair on watch duty, staying in a small metal room that stood like a small tower on the edges of Beacon. They would keep watch of their section, searching for anything unusual or dangerous approaching the camp. If there was something to be found, they were to inform some of the soldiers nearby and sit back. Rinse and repeat. Glynda was supposed to be there to order them about, but she was away for the moment, so they were left unsupervised. It was a job that only required a good eye and a whole lot of patience, Ruby was sure that she had one of those qualities…

She was defiantly impatient as Weiss noted quite quickly the way that Ruby would always look out into the wasteland of a forest that was ahead of them, a small sigh leaving her lips sometimes for a second, before instantly returning to her innocent and laughing nature.

"If I look at it upside down, it looks like mush and I start to feel dizzy" The ice queen took a small sip of the small water bottle the two were given to keep themselves hydrated.

The small girl gasped and looked back to the sky, her hand covering her mouth. "Aw, you're gonna hurt the poor clouds feelings!"

"For the hundredth time, it's a non-sentient object. It doesn't have feelings to hurt!" Weiss approached Ruby and poked her with a matter of fact look.

"How would you know? Have you talked to a cloud!?" Ruby countered with her cheeks puffed out, arms crossed and standing on her tippy toes.

"No, I don't waste my ti-"

"Then you can't say whether it has feelings or not!" Ruby pointed her finger out towards Weiss with an accusing stare.

"If you find it necessary, I won't point out all the ways that is wrong, as long as you shut up and keep your eyes outside" Weiss returned to her original position, watching in disgust as two guards had a spitting contest.

"Fiiiiiine!" Ruby moaned, turning on the spot to look towards the horizon, the sun just peaking over the end of her vison. "It's not like anything eve-" There she saw three specs appear away from the sun's glare. It has to be Sis and Jaune!

"What is it?" Weiss attempted to walk over to Ruby and look in the same direction, but was stopped when Ruby suddenly bolted past her (Bumping shoulders on the way) and towards what the room called an exit (A roughly cut doorway).

As soon as Ruby was out, she dashed to the side of the room and over the uneven and rocky ground, where she guessed grass used to grow, only to become barren in look. She hopped over a rock that jutted out of the side of the mountain, giggling to herself as she just avoided hitting her head on a different rock, stumbling slightly as she almost slipped.

A line of working teens marched in front of the doctor's office, the boxes they carried between them causing them to look similar to a train of sorts. One at the end was setting a heavy looking box outside the door, raising his hand to move his raven hair out of the way of his forehead while his other hand wiped the sweat from his brow, a calm expression never leaving his face.

"Ren, come on!" Ruby exclaimed loudly as she rushed through the line, almost crashing right into another worker, who in turn had leapt to the side to avoid the racing bullet of a girl. "Sis and Jaune are back!"

The boy in question looked up from his box towards the girl with an eyebrow raised, standing up from his position and dusting himself off, before taking off to follow Ruby. He was surprised to find that over the years the small girl had not lost her speed, finding himself barley able to keep her in sight before she disappeared around a corner with a wide grin, causing him to slightly smile at Ruby. _She sure hasn't lost her charm either._

When Ren rounded the corner with a small huff of breath, he found that Ruby was patiently running in place to wait for him, sending the boy a smug smile. "I'm waaaaaiiiiting!" She waved the boy over and took off again, though this time she made sure to go at a slower pace to allow Ren to run beside her.

"You're rather hyper for the two's return, they've only been gone for a few days" Ren commented matter-of-factly, easily avoiding a crash into a man that was passing them. The same could not be said about Ruby as the man was currently lying on the ground with her 'Sorry!' being his only company.

"Of course I am! It's my Sister and my best friend, what's not to be hyper about!?" Her tone held a hidden 'duh!' inside, causing Ren to chuckle slightly, looking back to when Nora was questioned about her love for pancakes. Nora… ''Why aren't you hyped!?"

"They've been with us for five years, going one or two days with out them won't make me come running" Ren shrugged, to which Ruby shook her finger with an accusing glance.

"Aren't you running to them right now?"

"Yes, but that's because someone needs to make sure you run responsibly" Was his calm reply

"Hey, I've never got hurt while running! Look at these feet!" She gestured to her swinging limbs that only left dust behind them.

Ren rolled his eyes and looked a head, watching two girls just managing to jump out of Ruby's way. "This is more to protect the unsuspecting people from being rammed by you"

"It's not my fault that they don't know how to move out of the way" A pout grew on her face, her head pushed down slightly to add to it before she changed the subject. "I thought you'd be worried about Jaune"

"I was, but then you said that he and Yang were here, so no reason to worry" Ren stated bluntly with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I… guess that makes sense?" Ruby thought for a second before shrugging at the words and focusing on launching herself down the path.

When the two finally reached the long trek upwards from the mountain's only entrance, they spotted Yang and Jaune approaching an already waiting Ozpin, a seemingly disappointed Stonewall following behind them. Jaune gave out a large smile once he reached Ozpin, a hand behind his head as he looked up to the man. Yang craned her head around a few times to look for someone, her expression brightening up as she spotted Ruby rushing towards them, kneeling down and opening up her arms for Ruby to jump into.

"Yang, you're back!" Ruby exclaimed with glee as she wrapped her small arms around Yang's torso, giggling as her big sister brought the small girl up, carrying her in her arms.

"How have you been? Keeping the Ice queen in her place?" She brought Ruby up to smile eye-to-eye

"Weiss hasn't been that bad lately, though she's still such a buzz kill! She called Chopper a doll!" Yang gave a small laugh and put Ruby on the ground.

Jaune turned to Ruby with a confused look, tilting his head. "What? He is a doll, how is that off-"

"You of all people should know how offensive the D word is for Chopper!" The small girl glared at Jaune with her finger poking his chest, her cheeks puffed out.

Jaune rolled his eyes with a smile "Hey! He was calling me names!"

"Because you refused to play with him" Ruby stated with a pout, crossing her arms and giving the 'angriest' look she could muster.

"Do you two ever shut up!?" Stonewall's voice blasted in an angry tone, now causing them to realise that she was standing right beside Yang.

"They're just enjoying their company" Ozpin responded with a frown, his eyes narrowing at Stonewall. "It's good to see in such hard times"

"It wouldn't be such hard times if we got more supplies" Stonewall stated as she held out the opened backpack, revealing a few old water biscuits, a pot of sugar and a water bottle.

"That's all?" Ozpin asked hesitantly, frowning at the minuscule amount of supplies.

"We might of found more if we had a chance to explore more buildings" Stonewall casted a glance towards Jaune for a second, before returning it to Ozpin. "But someone was too scared to continue. Now if you excuse me, I have to report to Iron Wood" With that, the woman pushed passed the group and heading up the mountain.

Jaune let out a sigh of shame as he let his head hang limp at the woman's departure, biting his lip as he stared at the ground with one thought constantly echoing throughout his mind. _Useless_

"What's wrong Jaune?" Ruby inquired, pulling on the hem of Jaune's torn shirt, her innocent eyes looking up at him with worry.

"I screwed up the mission…"

"Hey, don't worry about it Vomit Boy!" Yang called with confident thumbs up. "It was our first mission; I bet only a few first timers even find supplies. Besides, you're not expecting to have a nerve of steel, I only didn't show any fear because I constantly had a angry Stonewall with me" She placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder to comfort him, giving him a confident smile.

"I don't know, I just want to help more…" Jaune sighed again, now looking up at Yang, though Pyrrha was the one to respond.

"Hey, no one's perfect. This is just an area that you need to work on, everyone has something like that" She gave him an encouraging smile, before looking to Ozpin for additional words of support.

"It's…complicated Jaune, you're fear is understandable, but… You will need to get over it quick" Jaune nodded slowly at this, still feeling shameful.

If Yang could act like she doesn't have a care in the world, why can't I? He felt Ruby tug on his shirt again, prompting him to look down at her with a frown.

"Let's go play! My chores are done for an hour or two!" She started to attempt to drag him across the grounds, determined to get some play time with him. He held a smile at her, she had defiantly become his best friend since the start of this nightmare, it made him more worried for when it was her time to scavenge. She was not made for facing the harsh world.

"Okay, Okay! At least let me say hello to Ren first!" Jaune chuckled at the now pouting girl, moving out of her grip after ruffling her head and approaching the raven haired boy. "Hey, Ren! How are you holding up?"

"Better then you it seems" Ren joked with his arms reaching out to grasp Jaune's shoulder, a small smile on his lips. While Ren had never healed from the wound of Nora's death, his conversation with Jaune had at least allowed him the chance to smile sometimes, which did good to keep Jaune from getting to nosey.

"How did you get on with your scavenge for supplies?" Jaune asked, as Ren had departed on their mission just before Jaune and Yang.

"I ran into some Grim…" Ren stated in a calm manner, though his face seemed undecided, as if he couldn't decide how to feel about it. _There was no hesitation, not contemplation, just one finger pulling the trigger._ "We got out of there fine, though. Brought back some fuel too"

"I'm calling cheats!" Yang accused with her finger raised high, a competitive scowl on her face.

"Yang, how can you cheat in scavenging? There are no rules aside from don't kill your friend" Jaune pointed out, to which Yang snapped.

"Hey! Don't let that smug jerk walk over you! We will do better next time and come back with better supplies!" She declared, resulting in Jaune to rub his temples lightly as Ruby broke out into a laugh.

"That 'smug jerk' is my friend and this isn't a competition"

"Because everyone is already kicked us out of it, we need to get back in the game!" Yang punched the air with a determined look, a smirk on her lips.

"There's no point in arguing…" Jaune sighed at Yang, shaking his head slightly with his eyes to the floor.

"That's right, Vomit Boy" Her instant response made Jaune groan slightly.

"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" Jaune knew the answer, but just had to ask for his own sake.

"It's just a friendly nick name" Yang responded innocently

"It's insulting! And you call yourself a friend" Jaune frowned at Yang as Ruby started to pull him away again.

"Common, Vomit Boy!" Ruby giggled as Jaune sent her a glare, pulling the boy up the dirt path with surprising haste, almost causing Jaune to trip over his own feet at the movement.

"When did you develop such a strong grip?" Jaune found himself laughing at the girls iron grip on his wrist, he was sure that this would leave a mark.

"I've been lifting rocks!" She stretched out her free arm to flex it, suffice to say, the thought of such a small girl with bulging muscles almost made Jaune burst with laughter. "And Ozpin gave me milk!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow at this, milk wasn't really taken as a necessity "Where did he get that?"

"He brought it back from one of his missions, said that he was going to use it for coffee, but I needed it more" Ruby answered with a cheerful wave of her arms. "Something about my bones…"

"Ozpin, give up a chance to have coffee? The world really has ended!" The blonde exclaimed as the two finally came to a stop in front of a pile of fallen rocks that lay near the path to the top of the mountain, the rocks seemingly tempted to fall down and crush the small children.

Ruby turned to face Jaune with a faked serious expression, crossing her arms and stating "The needs of me outweigh the needs of the old!"

"I guess" Jaune shrugged with a small chuckle, looking up to the rock pile that sent a rather intimidating glare back at him. "That was nice of him to do though"

"Of course it was, it's Ozpin" Ruby now brought up her arms to rest behind her head, leaning against the arms. "He was telling me to stop fighting with Weiss"

"Well, you two do fight ALL the time" Jaune teased, now pressing his back against the pile, leaning against it.

"We do not!" Ruby gave out a pout, marching to the spot beside Jaune and promptly falling to sit on the ground.

"I swear any could hear your arguments from another country" His chuckle did not please the girl, who in turn punched the poor boy in the leg, causing him to let out a loud "Ow! Okay, okay. I'll stop, geez"

"That's what you get for being mean" She tutted with a smug smile on her face, pulling her knees up to her chest to hug herself.

After a few seconds of silence, Jaune looked to Ruby with a curious glance, before asking "Why didn't you ask Yang to come and play with you?"

She thought for a few second before replying "She would have had time, I asked Ozpin and he said that she has more work to do today" The boy felt a bit of disappointment at her answer, sighing slightly as she continued. "Plus, you're my best friend. I have to make time for you or I would be a bad friend!"

Jaune smiled at this, looking down to his friend with a chuckle. "You don't have to, I understand that Yang is much better to hang with"

"Yeah, but if I didn't hang out with you, Chopper would miss you!" She stated in a 'duh' type of tone, looking up at Jaune with a wide grin.

"Glad to hear it, Rubes"

* * *

Pyrrha was not in the best of conditions for the mission set before her, sweat drenched her greyed out shirt and drowned her hair, her arms covered in a layer of grit and dirt. A gun tightly locked in her iron grip as she peaked around the corner of the empty street, her back straight and only an inch shown, her hand ready to whip the gun out at anything that moved, just like they taught her.

Beside her by the wall in a crouched position was another girl about a year or two older then her, bunny ears promptly standing tall above her long brown hair. She looked to Pyrrha with a small frightened expression "Is it all clear over there?"

"I…" Pyrrha began her breathing exercises for the tenth time that day, tilting her head up with a small gulp. "I think so, yes."

"You're doing fine" The bunny eared faunus nodded with a confident smile as she slowly passed the other girl, slipping out into the street and sticking to the wall, her eyes constantly darting around as she approached the shattered window of a boarded up shop. Pyrrha followed suit at the same pace, repeating the breathing process as she walked.

 _In…out…In…and Out…Velvet's leading and Glynda is watching from across the street, she wouldn't let anything happen to me. She's always on the walki-talkie_

Velvet pushed her self over the broken window with care as to not cut herself on the glass, a sigh of relief came when she successfully entered along with a few bursts of dust rising from the old floor. "Come on, Pyrrha" It was only a whisper, but the red head heard it and followed suit.

When Pyrrha managed to get in without a shard of glass cutting her skin, she let out a relived smile and pushed herself to her feet, looking around the room. The shelves were mostly broken, indicating that someone bad already been here and grabbed most of the supplies there, but there was still a small amount of food remaining on the shelves.

"Pyrrha, you should start pocketing all you can find. I'm gonna check the back" Velvet waited for Pyrrha to give a nod before pushing through the door behind the counter, the red head approaching the shelves and placing a bag on the counter.

The fourteen year old unzipped the bag and began to move all the food inside the bag, pausing every few seconds to cast a glance around the room, waiting for something to pop out. _I wonder if everyone on these missions has that paranoia, it certainly isn't healthy._ She brought up the walkie-talkie to her lips, calling for Glynda, she needed to hear her voice through this.

"Is there a problem, Pyrrha?" Glynda's voice asked through the small device, worry in her tone.

"Uh, no! I mean…yes, or… Sort of" Her voice was very nervous, her task abandoned as she gripped the small metal device. "I'm…I'm scared, Glynda"

There was a sigh of relief on the other end from Glynda, replying in a calm and soothing tone. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. It's perfectly okay to be scared, remember the breathing exercises I taught you?"

"Y-yeah, I've been doing that for a while" Again she looked around the store with her heart thumping against her ribcage. "But..."

"But?"

"I just needed to hear your voice" Her head fell slightly as she looked to the floor, feeling a bit ashamed of needed to rely on Glynda's voice for comfort. "Please…"

"I'm always here if you need me, though I would prefer that we don't talk loudly. Wouldn't want to attract Grim" Pyrrha smiled and held the walkie-talkie in one hand, using the other hand to continue her task of putting away the food as Glynda began to talk. "How has it been back at Beacon?"

"It's been… Hard. The chores are gruelling and we work long hours, and that's not even talking about all the stuff they make us do after our fourteenth birthday" Pyrrha went on and on in a droning whisper, her confidence returning at a good rate.

"I'm sorry for not being around much, there's barely any time for brake for us adults these days" The regretful tone caused Pyrrha to stop for a moment to reply.

"It's fine, really! While we love having you and Ozpin around, we can't rely on you two all the time" She continued to stuff a lump of cheese inside the bag, it could last at least a week for them. "We need to learn how to handle ourselves…"

"That's rather mature of you" There was a slight chuckle from the radio at this, making Pyrrha grin more.

"Thank those novels Ozpin found for me, I think they were meant to teach kids ab-" A gasp broke out through the store, a commotion in the back as the door stood ajar.

"Pyrrha, where is Velvet!?" The muffled scream that came two seconds later made no need for a reply as Pyrrha bolted towards the door and pushed through it, appearing in a small hallway with a set of four doors, one was lying in a heap on the floor.

"Velvet!?" Pyrrha called as she crossed over to the broken down door and peered inside, where the bunny in question was on the stained marble floor, her arms pushed upwards against a metal shelf that was currently crushing her. On top of the shelf was the tall form of a blue shirted man, his skin charcoal black with his hands clawing at the shelf in a attempt to break through it and reach the struggling girl. "Grim…Grim…"

"Pyrrha help me!" Velvet cried as the shelf started to rock against the two opposing forces, the Grim letting out various growls at what would be it's next meal. Pyrrha shook with fear at the sight, almost paralysed with fear even with Velvet's desperate screams.

"Pyrrha!" Glynda's voice yelled through the walkie-talkie, snapping Pyrrha out of her frozen state. "You have to help her!"

"B-but...How?"

"You're going to need to get Velvet's gun" Glynda told Pyrrha firmly, the girl's heart thumping even louder then before. Pyrrha gave a soft squeak in some sort of reply, her eyes scanning the room for any sign of Velvet's gun (Everyone was required to have some sort of self defence), lucky for her the gun was in sight, but… it seemed to have been thrown to the foot of the falling shelf, right behind the Grim. "Right…"

Pyrrha started forward in a struggling and shaky walk, flinching with every scream from her companion as the Grim got closer to digging it's claws into the girl's skull. "Pyrrha, Hurry up!" That was the only thing she could find audible, the screams of desperation. "Please!" She dropped to her knees at the foot of the shelf, her hand shaking wildly. "Pyrrha…" There was a loud snap as the claws went through the shelves' bars and threw them aside, Pyrrha reaching over and snatching up the firearm.

"Pyrrha, take the gun…" Glynda's voice broke through Pyrrha's ears.

 _"Pyrrha"_

"Aim…"

"I-I-I can't.."

"You have to! Pull the trigger!"

"But-"

"PYRRHA!"

The trigger was pulled as Pyrrha closed her eyes, not wishing to witness the collision of the bullet, though that did not spare her from the liquid that splashed over her face.

"Pyrrha?" A grumble came from Velvet, it was slightly weak and wheezy. When the girl opened her eyes, she saw that the shelf was still atop her. "Get this thing off of me" Pyrrha rushed over and place her hands under the shelf, managing to lift it up a few inches with Velvet's help, allowing the other girl to quickly slide out. "Thankyou…Thankyou"

Pyrrha shook for a moment before scrambling across the floor to grab the unattended walkie-talkie, bringing it up to her lips as she grips it tightly. "Glynda!" Tears staining her cheek as she cried through the device.

"Are you okay, Pyrrha!?"

"I shot someone, Glynda…I shot him…"

Velvet placed a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder in a comforting manner, but Pyrrha didn't care, she needed to hear Glynda "You had to!"

"Does this make me a bad person?"

"No, dear! You did good, You did good" Glynda's voice calmed the girl, who pressed the device against her chest as if she was hugging it.

"I killed him…"

"He was already dead" Pyrrha choked out a sob, Velevet pulling the girl to her feet. "We're done here, take what you can and come back to me…"

* * *

 **I have to admit that I feel that the part with Pyrrha was rushed, what do you guys think? Should I rewrite that part?**


	8. Chapter 8: A friend in need

The group were surprised when Pyrrha and Goodwitch had returned to the outpost with Pyrrha being in a broken state, tears flowing down her cheeks as her hand shook while gripping the air where the firearm had used to be.

Now they all sat close to her sleeping form, her now try eyes shut tight to block out all the tears that plagued her face an hour before. It had been a short time since she had stopped crying, only to begin shaking and gasping in her sleep, her nightmares tormenting her.

"You think she'll be okay?" Jaune looked over to the rest of the group, Ren and himself being the closest to Pyrrha as Yang and Ruby respectfully kept their distance from the trio of friends.

"She'll be fine, she only needs time to adjust" Ren replied while laying a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder, his other on the sleeping red head's. "Soon, this will become second nature to her. It'll be the same for us all one day"

"What!? That can't be true…" Jaune pulled his knees to make contact with his chest, looking to Ren with a trembling lip. "I don't wanna kill anybody"

"You'll have to Jaune" Ren now threw his body back to lie down and gaze upwards with his arms acting as a pillow, his breathing slow and hesitant as he continued his response to his Blond friend. "It's kill or be killed out there"

"That's stupid" Ruby commented suddenly from her position in Yang's arms as she took a frowning look towards Ren, her innocent silver eyes wide open. "We're all people, we should all get along. It's stupid to not"

Ren had a few moments to give out a sigh at the small girl's words, turning his position so he was now leaning on his side and looking directly to the sisters with a sympathetic look. "It's not that simple, Ruby. The world has gone to hell, gotta scramble around in the muck to simply live another minuet. But, you probably wouldn't understand, you're only a kid"

"I'm not a little kid!" Ruby retorted with a small screech, Yang just managing to stop her from falling when she covered her mouth at Pyrrha's movements, bringing her voice to a low volume. "I drink milk!"

"Point proven" Ren bluntly responding to the pouting little girl as she crossed her arms in anger, her cheeks swollen as her eyes turned away from the boy.

"Was that true, what you said?" Jaune quietly asked Ren, shuffling his position to sit next to his friend, hoping he wasn't disturbing him.

"Sadly" Ren didn't turn from his position, only responding calmly like he always did, with that mask over his true feelings set in stone. "Desperation is not kind to us, Jaune. It changes us"

"Why?" Jaune frowned at this sentence, thinking back to when his mother used to teach him about how Strange's are just friends you haven't met yet

"Because we need to adapt to live, no matter the consequences" Ren let out a sigh, as if he had explained this for only the forty-fourth time as he shifted his position to attempt to grab more comfort.

Jaune had no intention or want to accept the cold words from his calm friend, the mere thought of believing such a thing made him feel as if he was betraying his parents and the ways they raised him. But he couldn't shake the dreaded feeling that gripped at his throat for the next few minuets, his mind always telling him, asking him to consider _What if Ren is right?_ He didn't want to be killer, he didn't want to take a life...But neither did he want someone else to take his.

Pyrrha turned on her side to lean towards the opposite of the group, her back now to them as the plagues of her dreams came out in little moans for help, Jaune's worried gaze never leaving her form.

"That could have been us, Yang" Jaune pointed out all of the sudden through the silence that had befell them again, still looking to Pyrrha when Yang craned her neck to look towards Jaune. "We were lucky, the only fears we had to face didn't even exist…"

"Yeah, luck us…" Yang moved her gaze to look towards the young Red head with sympathy behind her eyes, adjusting Ruby's position on her lap as she shuffled uncomfortably. "But not for long…"

"Sooner or later" Ren confirmed as his knees shifted their position, now brought up to point at the sky.

"No…" Ruby frown only deepened at this, the depression of the whole conversation starting to take hold of her as she snuggled into Yang's arms, her lip trembling slightly. "It'll all be alright… It has to be..."

* * *

The sun shone brightly for the next few days, while beautiful to look towards it was hell to the people that had to work those days, the sun glaring down to stare a hole into the people's skin.

Jaune found himself yelling his prayers that the only work he had to do today would be required to do when the sun has gone to rest, sparing his skin for the most part, though that didn't mean the sun didn't still hurt when he stepped outside the shade.

Pyrrha still hadn't recovered from her actions the other day, not willing to speak to anyone and preferring to stay alone during chores. It worried Jaune a lot to see her like this, regretting every time he looks to her to see a tear about to escape her eye.

He wanted to help her past this, to talk to her out of her depression and have the old Pyrrha back, but it seems like she didn't want him close, she had been gravitating towards Glynda more recently.

A loud exclamation of 'BOOYA, HEADSHOT!' smashed through the thin layer of thought he had, making him jump as his eyes returned to watch the event unfolding in front of him. Yang stood tall with her chest puffed out proudly as she lowered the small BB pistol in her hand, Ruby letting off a sequence of awed claps at her sister's actions.

"Does it really count as a head shot when a can doesn't have a head?" Ruby questioned as she got to her feet, approaching the box had five fallen tin cans rolling from side to side on top of it, re-arranging the cans to stand again.

Yang raised her head with a thoughtful expression, looking towards the cans as if she was inspecting them for dirt. "Well… I think the hem part counts as a head…"

"So the middle is the chest?"

"I guess…"

"Then you got a chest shot…" Ruby poked the centre of the can where a small part of the rusty metal had curved in reaction to the hit, Yang frowning and pulling her arms up to cross over.

"Still a good shot…" The blonde huffed, now turning to walk over to Jaune with a slightly curious expression. "Hey, Vommit boy. You still awake? It's your turn"

Jaune blinked at his mention and looked up to the tall girl with his mind going blank for a moment, racking his brain for what they were doing while he was thinking about his predicament. "Uh…" He looked over to where the cans stood and began to remember why he was here, looking now to the held out pistol he reached over to take it from Yang's hand. "Right, time to show you how a real gunslinger shoots!"

His confident remark caused more giggles from Ruby as Yang only snorted with a 'Yeah, right on Cowboy', watching as Jaune approached the chair that stood in front of the crate to signal where to fire from. He took his position be hind the chair and stared down the inanimate rusty cans, adopting the appropriate stance to fire from. Legs bended, one in front of the other for balance, a strong but non-restricted grip on the gun, back raised to face his chest as it was pushed forward to avoid the recoil.

When his finger pulled back on the trigger, he felt the gun tremble a bit as the bullet's exit caused a nice vibration from the tool, though the vibrations also made Jaune's hands feel like goo as he still kept his grip on the weapon. The small rubber bullet dashed through the air with only a slight trail of it's whizzing sound following in it's wake, soon finding itself colliding with the can near the bottom, only just avoiding a hit to the crate that would of caused the bullet to make a painful comeback.

"Lucky shot!" Came Yang's yell from her position with Ruby, pouting slightly as the can was sent tumbling off of the crate to Jaune's pleasure. "I could do that in my sleep!" Ruby just sat and cheered Jaune on with a few added 'ooo's and 'aaaah's for effect, it took Jaune's mind off of Pyrrha for the moment.

The wind still held only a gentle breeze for the moment, a good aspect of the day to take advantage of when firing projectiles. He kept his firearm raised with the nice thrill of the first victory still running through him, his confidence high enough to allow him to smirk and take the next shot.

The can was forced off of the crate and crashed to the ground as Jaune punched the air with only a small inner resistance keeping him from performing a victory jig, pivoting on his foot to wave a finger at Yang teasingly, the can's quiet thumping against the side of the crate seemed to act as his triumphant music. "I think that makes two in a row! One more and I'm in a draw with you"

"Amazing!" Ruby squealed with little claps that only made Yang frown further, looking down at the girl with a fake shock.

"Don't cheer him on, he's the enemy!"

"He's my best friend!"

"TRAITOR!" Yang accused with a rudely pointed finger, prodding Ruby's nose with said finger. "I thought we were sisters!"

Jaune let out a chuckle at the scene and pulled down his arms to hold the gun in the same position, his eyes narrowing on the third can standing. Time to show that blond haired pun-clown how it's done! He found his aim appropriate and pulled back on the trigger the rubber bullet launching from the barrel of the pistol and shooting through the air, in his eyes the bullet moved in slow motion towards the can.

One shot… He could hear Yang chant in a low tone "Miss! Miss! Miss! Miss!" The bullet closed in on the can Ruby cheered him on from the side, her head following the bullet like Jaune's was. One inch away, and… "AND HE MISSES! OH THE LAMARITY!"

Jaune collapsed to his knees with shame forcing his head to hang, letting out a quiet cry of defeat, now sending curses at the can and it's metal family. He let the gun drop to the floor in a heap, causing a few dust clouds to rise up and surround him. "I have failed!"

A giggling Ruby approached the boy and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, helping the ashamed boy to his feet and sending him her usual wide smile. "Cheer up, Jaune, You just missed a can"

"But it is a stain upon my honour!" Jaune let the back of his hand rest on his own forehead as he craned his neck to look away, his dramatic stance prompting Ruby to only sigh now. "You wouldn't understand!"

"Geez, stop being so dramatic, Vomit Boy" Yang let off a ear bleeding laugh as she clasped his shoulder with her hand. "You just naturally lost to me"

"That only makes it worse!" Jaune exclaimed with laughter not far following, breaking through his dramatic response to poke fun at Yang. "Losing to you is like loosing to a Sloth wearing oven mitts!" Yang stuck her tongue out in response, simply approaching the fate and pointing at the still standing can. That can…It mocks me!

"I'm not a sloth!"

"..You're right, Sloth's can use their hands better" Jaune instantly pushed off the grouond to sprint around Ruby and use the girl's small form as a shield, Yang bounding after him with her fists ready to pound into his head. "Ruby, protect me!"

"You shouldn't of called her worse then a sloth…" Ruby responded with a small eye brow raised, Jaune's begging face causing her to sigh as she began to moan. "Yang, you can't kill my best friend"

"Oh common, you can replace him" Yang retorted, darting to the side as Jaune spun Ruby around to face her.

"Who with?"

"You're not replacing me! You pinky promised!" Jaune cried in defiance, raising his finger and poking Ruby in the shoulder. "You can't break a pinky promise!"

"He's right, Ruby." Yang had suddenly stopped to tut at Ruby wit a disapproving shake of her head, the girl in question crossing her arms at the two suddenly turning on her. "For shame, for shame"

Ruby put on a pout at the two, pulling her knees up to her chest as she retorted "I didn't break it! I was just curious…"

Jaune now sat him self down with his back leaning against the crate, Yang patting Ruby on the head with a laugh, the gun and Sloth insult forgotten under the early sun's golden gaze. They sat in silence for a few minuets, it was a nice and calming experience that made Jaune think on the last few years since the world went to hell. Looking towards the two sisters he realised just how close he felt towards them at the moment, whether it was out of loneliness, desperation or actual friendship, he didn't really care.

Jaune, Ruby, Yang, Ren, Pyrrha, Glynda and Ozpin. They were more then just a group of people that just had happened to meet in a desperate situation for Jaune, they were a family, aside from Ruby they were surviving together. His thoughts stayed on Pyrrha and her current situation, an image of her crying form on her bed popped up.

She was most likely still repeating that depiction at this very moment if Jaune went to look, it made him feel so useless on the inside, like something was cracking him over the head and yelling at him to do something. The thought of how Pyrrha didn't seem to want to talk to him, how she seemed to be more of a friend to Glynda then him. He then felt a flash of anger directed towards himself tug on his heart, feeling as if he should hit himself.

What is wrong with me!? His thoughts seemed to suddenly lash out at him, causing his anger for himself to rise. Pyrrha is crying in her bed, and all I care about is that she got a better friend? A fist formed in his lap as the thoughts berated him, he felt disgusted with himself that he actually felt jelous, he needed to focus on helping Pyrrha.

His thoughts came to a close as he began to get to his feet, a serious look gracing his features that made Yang and Rubyb express confusion. Before they could ask what was up, he pushed on forward. "Sorry, but I have something I need to do"

* * *

 **Urg, it took a lot of elbow grease to retrieve this chapter after someone had borrowed my memory stick and managed to lose it. Until I found it... Okay, technically my dog found it and brought it to me while trying to use it as a chew toy...**

 **Anyway, as I wrote this chapter, I was wondering if I was going too slow with this and if I'm focusing way to much on the secondary characters (Though I present Ruby as the main, I havn't really focused that much on her or the hell torn world she's living in now). I want you to shed your opinion on this specific point as, even though I REALLY enjoy giving other characters moments to feel and develop, I know that the plot could be seen as disjointed and lost if we stray from the path for too long. What do you think?**


	9. Chapter 9: You are not a monster!

Pyrrha felt her muscles groan slightly as she held up the heavy weight of the wooden board, lifting the object high enough to rival her own height, the malformed and sharp ends of the wood only an inch away from scraping her chin. Under the board Velvet was taking her damn time to hammer metal nails into the surface of the wood, slightly pushing against Pyrrha's force with the recoil of every hammering blow.

"H-hurry up!" Pyrrha managed to groan out through gritted teeth with her knees beginning to bend to attempt to make the weight a little easier to take, the red head starting to attempt to place her head under the board.

Velvet made a few more blows to force the nail into the wood before rolling onto her side to reach out with a long arm to retrieve another, rolling back and continuing to hammer the metal ends in, sweat dripping down the brows of both girls.

A small grunt came from the red heads lips when her arm bucked against the weight ("OW!" Also indirectly delivering an annoying blow to Velvet), giving her arm a slight vibration that made her feel as if her bones were wobbling out of place and slamming against the inside of her flesh.

The wood pulled back down her hand for the moment, it's loose ends spilling over the hand as a quick scratch turned the skin crimson, resulting in a soft gasp of pain from Pyrrha. The weight was getting worse and the wood seemed to be pulling itself to the ground no matter how much Pyrrha fought back against it, her arms were going a little weak and she knew she would let go soon.

It was a moment of confusion when the wooden board seemed to lose some weight at the thought, causing Pyrrha to only blink as her muscles rejoiced at the loss. Craning her neck slightly to the side she could see a nervous and struggling face sheltered slightly by a mop of blonde hair, her eye brow raised slightly when she saw that his hands had taken hold of the board. "Jaune?"

However, her blonde friend found himself unable to respond to her as he let out a choking gasp as he attempted to hold up the board. "Arg! Why does it feel as if I'm holding up a building!?" A small giggle from Velvet could be heard under the board as she continued to work, only a few more nails to go.

In the minuet that it took for Velevet to hammer the last nail into the surface of the wood, Jaune defiantly seemed to struggle with almost dropping the board on a few occasions, sweat constantly dripping from his forehead to his chin. When the final nail was hammered in, both Jaune and Pyrrha pushed the board up to stand on its side and lean against the wall like a supporting pole, pushing against the wall with a few bits and pieces nailed to it's under belly to keep it there.

"Thanks for the help back there, Jaune" Velvet smiled upwards as she collapsed to a sitting position, looking up towards the sun and taking a few deep breaths. "If you hadn't come along, I'm sure Pyrrha would have dropped the board on my head!"

This was met with a frown from the red head in question as the girl crossed her arms, doing her own breathing exercises as she softly massaged her arm, muttering "Would not…"

"Really? You looked like you were about to before Jaune came in" Velvet began to tease the red head, though her smiled soon came to a simple frown and her teasing silenced, Pyrrha's expression now one of regret and depression. "Pyrrha?"

"Sorry…" Pyrrha muttered through a bitten lip.

"It's okay, Pyrrha. She was just joking around, you did a great job!" Jaune attempted to cheer the girl up the best he could, but his in experienced was clear as he motioned for Velvet to help him in speaking.

"Great job…?" The question was loosely made, as if Pyrrha was confused on whether she should have voiced it as a question.

Jaune was kept silent for the moment with his teeth grinding against his bottom lip, his eyes glancing towards Velvet for some sign or vote of confidence, before looking back to his friend. Pyrrha's face was a rather distant expression, Jaune could guess that her thoughts were wondering to a memory and considering that her eyes looked like she was holding back tears, he could guess which memory.

The blonde boy placed his hand softly onto of his friend's shoulder, his fingertips digging into the fabric of her clothing as he squeezed the shoulder. "Pyrrha…" He bit his lip once more as he attempted to push out some words, only managing to say "It…It was's your-"

Pyrrha's head snapped to face his direction with her eyes narrowed to look at him, her lips still trembling and her posture not changing, though the look in her eyes only seemed to stop Jaune's would-be speech in it's tracks. "I killed a man, Jaune"

"He was trying to kill me!" Velvet blurted out as she got to her feet, her arms were by her side and pushed down as if t add to the point, her ears shaking slightly.

"I killed a man" Pyrrha repeated with a higher volume this time, the words seemed to make her flinch each time at acknowledging the sentence.

"And saved Velvet" Jaune countered with his arm out stretched to point right at the bunny eared girl, him and Pyrrha now seeming to have a staring contest.

"But the man…"

"He was a Grim!"

"So what!? He was still a man, who had a name... friends…a wife maybe or a whole family… He had a life! Pyrrha had the tears break from the imprisonment inside her eyes, racing down her cheeks live a flowing river and dripping to the ground as her raised voice spoke. "A life that I took…Another person, just like me… Whether he's black, white, grey or growling doesn't change the fact that his blood is on my hands. It doesn't change what I…what I did…and what I am…"

"Pyrrha!" Jaune exclaimed is a surprisingly angered tone, taking Pyrrha back abit and causing her to pause for a few moments. "I wasn't there…I was the one who pulled the trigger and never saw the life taken. I know that I have no idea how it feels for you, but… I know you, I know that this is hard for you to hear and know. Whatever that man had, I think even I can guess that it wasn't worth living for. I know that you are not a bad person. I know that you… you did what you had to back there"

The three fell silent for a moment after the boy's speech with his hands now twiddling with each other, taking a gulp as he awaited Pyrrha's reply. The red head looked up to the sky for a second, a moment of contemplation over Jaune's words came over her face, before she walked towards Jaune ''I'm… Going for a walk"

"Wait, Pyrrh-" Jaune attempted to keep her there, to talk more, but she pushed forward and wrapped her arms around him before he could finsish, completely catching him off of his guard.

The red head leaned her head forward towards his ear to make sure he heard her words, a slightly sad smile coming over her face. "You've done enough, Jaune. Thank you" With that she pulled away from the hug and turned to walk away, Jaune calling after her.

"If you ever need to talk…I know you're more comfortable with talking it out with Glynda and all, but…I'm available" Jaune saw Pyrrha stop for the moment, he swore he could see a flash of a smile on her face as she responded.

"I know, Jaune. I know" With that she made her way around the corner, disappearing from sight.

* * *

Ironwood let out a sigh of relief when he finally sat down in the creaking wooden chair, relaxing from the first time since he woke up to greet his working day. Across from him sat Ozpin calmly enjoying a steaming hot mug of coffee in his hand, though he seemed to have taken to just staring down at the mug as if it was a holy relic for around five minuets, his gaze unmoving.

"You know, Ozpin. If you just keep staring at it, it'll go cold" Ironwood chuckled slightly as he adjusted his position, giving the silver haired man a smile as the coffee was pulled up to be sipped.

"Just…living in the moment" Ozpin smirked and took a long sip of the hot brown liquid, leaning back in his chair and letting out a content sigh. "Coffee is all I need'' He kept his smile as the mug came down to rest in the palm of his hands again, his eyes now locked onto Ironwood. "Rough day?"

"Like you wouldn't believe, two of my men found a bottle of wine after a scavenging mission. Never had to shout so loud at anybody before, then again, I'm never usually sober when dealing with drunks" The man explained as he stretched out his hands, a slight cracking sound coming from his stiffening bones at the movement. "My vocal chord are most likely going to shatter soon"

Ozpin took a moment to let out a laugh at Ironwood's comment, ending the laugh with another smirk sent to the other man, who frowned in return. "You say it like that would be a bad thing to occur"

"Hey, if I lose my voice, you'd then have to speak for me. Less time for coffee then" Ironwood returned the smirk towards Ozpin's nervously chuckling face, quickly taking another sip of his coffee. "Though I'm sure the kids wouldn't mind watching you yell some poor guards to death" Another chuckle, another smirk, the calm atmosphere filled the room. It was good to be peaceful for once. "How are those kids anyway?"

"They're fine for the most part"

"I've seen some of the reports from their scavenger missions" Ironwood adjusted his position to fully put his body to face Ozpin, a serious expression crossing his face. "How is Pyrrha holding up? The report said that she broke down"

Ozpin sighed at the mention of the girl, placing down his coffee on the table as his eyes found a sudden interest in the floor, the frown now sticking to his lips. "She's… Copping, I guess. Glynda's trying to help and I… I just don't know what to do"

"You could try talking to her"

"What would I say? I'm not the best with kids, I'd only end up causing her more harm then good" Ozpin sighed and turned his head to look back to Ironwood as he pulled his back into a slouching position, his legs now spread apart and his coffee forgotten.

"If anyone could cheer the girl up, it's you and Glynda. Her and that lot look up you, you've been guiding them from the start of this, guide her now" Ironwood simply spread out his arms as if to reinforce his point.

"Ren would disagree"

"Ren?"

Ozpin closed his eyes with a sigh at the name, leaning back in his chair as his hand came up to rub his forehead. "It hasn't been good between us for a long time now, he avoids me, tries everything in his power to not talk to me… I think he hates me for the most part"

"Hate you? Why would he hate you? You saved him didn't you?"

Ozpin's eyes narrowed with silent anger, his fist slamming onto the table as a loud grunt came from his lips, his teeth clamped down as his arm slightly twitched. "I…It's complicated…He's been through a lot"

"I can tell that much, the results of his mission were rather surprising" Ironwood seemed to have forced himself to brush off Ozpin's behaviour and reminded himself to ask later, his head tilted upwards thoughtfully. "No hesitations, no complains. His companions were very surprised to see how un-effected by his own actions. Can't blame him though, it's in some's nature to deal with this easier then most"

"At least he'll be prepared for the hellhole we're living through" Ozpin could feel inner anger directed at himself flare from his stomach. _It's my fault, isn't it? I made him change…_

"Other's, they'll only accept reality when they're backed into a corner. As a wise man once said..." Ironwood paused for a moment, racking his brain for the quote. "People will do anything when they think their life is about to end"

* * *

Pyrrha returned to the peaceful and near empty sleeping grounds, working hours still dragging out the day for some and leaving others to an empty bedding area. She took a deep breath as she made her way over to her bed cloth, taking a seat on the bumpy and dust ridden cloth. Her thoughts all went back to Jaune's little speech back at the wall, torn over how she felt about the whole thing, there was joy at first for the fact that Jaune was attempting to help and that his point made at least some sense.

But there was still that lingering doubt deep in her stomach that clawed at her skin from the inside, that crept up her body to yell guilty verdicts in her ear at pull the tears from her eyes, to pull up the image of her parents in her mind and ask her what they would think of her now.

She could picture her mother just shaking her head in Pyrrha's direction and running into the arms of her husband, tears streaking from her eyes. Her dad looked towards Pyrrha with a disappointed glare as he slowly shook his head, his voice solem and shocked as he began to pull his wife away. I raised you better than this.

"I'm sorry, Daddy. I had to…" She felt like a small girl again, crying her eyes out and begging for forgiveness when she thought she had disappointed her parents.

 _He had a life_

"He was trying to.."

 _He was a person_

"But Jaune…and Velvet… and Glynda…"

 _Would you do the same to us?_

''No! I would never…" The man she had killed appeared in front of her, though he looked more human now as he knelt down, a child running into his arms as a woman stood next to him.

 _''Daddy! Daddy!''_

 _"I have to go son…"_

 _The family didn't seem to notice Pyrrha as they were swept up their own goodbyes, the mother was weeping as the child poked the dad. "No…"_

 _"Why!? Stay here, Daddy!"_

 _"I'm dying, Son"_

 _With that the man collapsed to the side of his son, his eyes closed and his body going completely limp, the mother's weeping intensifying._

 _"Daddy? …Daddy…Why did you have to go?" The child asked through tears_

 _The mother looked down towards Pyrrha with a glare, taking the child in her arms. "Because he was murdered… by a monster…"_

 _The image of her own mother and father walked into view, the disappointment still clinging to their faces along with disgust as they said in harmony. "What have you done?"_

Through her hallucinations of guilt, Pyrrha didn't notice the tall form of Yang plop down beside her on the cloth with her arms crossed, patiently waiting for Pyrrha to stop talking to herself. Pyrrha continued to keep muttering the words ''no..'' in a low chant under her breath, it was a minute later when Yang had decided to snap the other girl out of it, holding her finger's in front of the girl and click them.

Pyrrha jumped with a small squeal in surprise as soon as the fingers clicked, causing her to accidentally throw herself backwards and slam head first into the ground. After a few groans of pain and a helping hand, the red head was back to a sitting position and looked towards Yang. "Yang? What are you doing here?"

"Eh, I didn't have any more work and I sent Ruby off to play with Jaune. So I thought we could talk"

"Talk? About what…?" Pyrrha could easily guess the topic of conversation, but didn't want to say it aloud in hopes that Yang wished to move to a different subject.

"Look, I know Jaune hasn't been through what you have, so I doubt he'll know the best way to deal with what you're going through. He wasn't there to pull the trigger or look at the corpse" Yang certainly didn't beat around the bush of the conversation, jumping straight into the hard blow.

"He means well, I know that" Pyrrha sighed, pulling her knees towards her chest as she stared into space.

"You're lucky, He's a good friend" Yang let out a smile and nod towards Pyrrha as the red head seemed to agree.

"But he doesn't understand…I took a life…" Pyrrha shivered at the repeated word, flashes of the man and his crying imaginary family making her flinch.

"And?" Was Yang's simple reply

"I'm a monster..." Pyrrha let out a annoyed sigh at Yang's response, speaking again in a raised tone to attempt to get her point across. "I killed a man, that's wrong. It's not as simple as you seem to think it Yang"

"It can be if you really think about it" Pyrrha attempted to let out a reply in return, but stoopped in her tracks as Yang finished with "I should know, you're not the only one who's had to kill"

"You've done it before?"

"Yeah… I had to kill my mother when this whole thing started"

"Oh god.." Pyrrha's eyes widened at the revelation, turning to look at Yang's expression of bitter sadness. "I'm so…so sorry. How did you…"

"Manage to do it without shooting myself?" Yang looked to Pyrrha with an empty stare, as she had expected all of this. "Because it wasn't my mother any more"

"Huh?"

"My mother was a kind, caring and loving woman. She adored her kids and would rather die then harm one of her children. The moment she tried to harm Ruby, was the moment I realised that my mother was gone and dead, the thing that's using her appearance is just a monster" Yang seemed to glare into space at the word 'monster', but her gaze softened as she continued. "That's how I think about it for all the Grim, everyone who becomes one… They've lost everything, their life, their personality, their humanity. They're not who they used to be"

"I think I understand what you're saying…" Pyrrha felt that pang of doubt ebb away a bit, Yang's words beginning to make sense to her. "Killing them…Is only helping them?"

"Yeah, exactly" Yang gave a firm nod in return, giving Pyrrha a soft and warm smile. "We're saving the tiny part of them that's left to watch what the monster is doing"

Silence fell between them again at this, Pyrrha thinking on her words as she looked back out into the sky, her hands rubbing her knees for warmth. Yang crossed her legs and simply took in the day, her head tilted to look to Pyrrha, attempting to see what the girl was feeling now. "I know that none of your personal problems are my business, but… I thought I could help"

For the first time that day, Pyrrha gave a big and true smile towards Yang, her demeanour lighter and her eyes no longer holding her demons in view as the doubt passed. "You're right, Yang… I'm not a monster"


	10. Chapter 10: Whispers in the air

Glynda stood by the broken doorway in a crouched position facing outwards into the streets, her weapon perfectly held in comfort by her arms with the butt end resting against the curve of her arm that headed up towards her shoulder. Legs spread apart and placed firmly on the floor for balance, her spectacle covered eyes staring ahead into what seemed to be an empty street.

The past month had gone by rather well for the most part, after learning of Jaune and Yang's talk with Pyrrha, Glynda noticed that the red headed girl seemed to be going back to her usual optimistic and calm self. It brought a smile to the woman's lips at the thought, she thought that Pyrrha would forever change because of the incident and that she would end up shutting herself down mentally.

Of course, while it hadn't been a drastic change that had overcome Pyrrha after her separate talks, but Glynda could tell that a natural change was taking place. When asked, Yang had told Glynda what she told Pyrrha exactly, it broke Glynda's heart a little to know what Yang had to do to her own mother. And yet, Glynda felt a soft pang of pride upon hearing how both girls had learned to just… deal with it. It was a pride like that of a relative looking at their kids and screaming to a crow "That's my girl! That's my son!"

After that the days seem to pass without much on the side of tragedy or drama in the camp, though there were the few times that Ruby's and Weiss's voices broke out in their usual arguments. (And Ozpin did manage to break down recently when he realised they had ran out of coffee, almost shedding a tear) Aside from that, most days seemed…. Almost clam, where you could feel so close to just forgetting what's happening around you, but there's always that small dreaded part of your mind that sparks up, that growls in your ear to keep the image of the hell you live in fresh in your mind.

The sudden clap of footsteps atop the smooth ground pulled Glynda out of her thoughts as she whipped around with her weapon thrusted forward to aim towards the noise, her eyes narrowed to search for any sign of movement amidst the abandoned building. Her first thought was to alert attacker to her presence and threaten to shoot at it, but her wavering doubt told her that there was a chance that it was a Grim that hadn't noticed her, alerting would only startle it and possibly attract more.

Her only options were to get as far away from the location as possible or press further inside and possibly sneak up on the threat, the fact that Ozpin was currently investigating outside for any signs of movement made escaping a risk to him if he came into the house oblivious to the danger.

So her decision was to push on and show this intruder who had the firearm. _Speaking of firearms…_ She found her gaze moving down to inspect her weapon of choice, an old rifle that felt heavy in her hands. _If I kill anything with that, it's going to be loud… Better stick to a melee, in case anything else is lingering near by._ She pulled the weapon up and over her shoulder to cling to her back, held up by a strap that loosely held it.

As Glynda pushed herself forward she reached towards her side to pull out an average sized army knife, freshly scrubbed clean of dirt and previously spilled blood (For all her flaws, Glynda had to admit that Stonewall had a good head for cleaning weapons…) with it's sharp end glaring menacingly back at her, ready to be dirtied again.

The clap came again from the other room, joined by quiet thump as something small was knocked to the ground violently. The ex-store owner sucked in her breath to take away the sound of her breathing as she continued forwards, her pace slow and careful to avoid stepping on the multitude of objects littering the ground, her knife held in front of her with the butt of the handle facing her chest in case of the weapon being pushed back on accident.

Soon she had reached the intact side of the door frame that had long since let go of it's broken door, which now laid on the ground in a limp state that reminded Glynda of a corpse. She pressed her shoulder into the door frame and moved her head past it to get a peek around the doorway, when her eyes reached around and into the room they found their gaze falling upon what was defiantly a grim.

The creature had seemed to have been human at one point, with bony arms and other distinctly human features mixed in with what seemed like jet black fur, coupled with horns that were growing out of various places on the body. _So this is what happens when you're turning to long…_

There had been reports of similar transformations taking place in other Grim left active in their area, the savage inclinations increasing to mimic those of the creature Glynda still remembered just escaping from that day five years ago. Some speculated that this was just the virus changing over time as it got through more of the human body.

The creature began to attempt a limp crawl over towards the window with it's various horns constantly beging pushed deeper into the creature's body as it pushed them against the floor, with every step of the way causing it to moan out an anguish, but quiet scream.

Glynda took a moment to formulate a plan on how she would take care of the beast, before nodding to herself in conformation of understanding, taking a quick draw of breath before rasping her knuckles against the doorframe.

The response was an instantaneous growl from the creature inside the room as it twisted around to face the door, it's eyes holding only a savage hunger as it glared at the air, stalking towards the door with it's horns scraping against the ground.

She positioned herself just by the corner with her head peaking around it to look towards the approaching shadow, her hand shaking in anticipation while gripping the handle of the knife tightly. _Flip, grab, aim for the mouth, stab._ She went over her plan again in her head with a slight intake of breath, the groaning foot steps padding closer, emitting a groan from the floor as the horns scraped against it.

The three clawed foot of the creature made it's appearance through the door, it's snarling head soon following as it pushed through with it's leg dragging behind it. It's soulless eyes surveyed to room like a hawk, it's nose twitching slightly as it started to sniff the air for Glynda's scent. That's when she struck.

In one whirl of action and desperation Glynda pushed her self around the corner and threw herself towards the creature in a attempt to tackle it, managing to catch it by surprise and completely topple it to the ground. As the growing horns delivered a cut across the woman's skin the creature attempted to let out a howl, to which Glynda on delivered a blow to its throat, causing it's howl to damper in volume as it attempted it.

Glynda shifted her weight so that she sat with her legs either side of the creature's body, pinning half of it down as it continued to struggle, the horns on it's swinging arms managing to deliver more cuts on the woman. It attempted to growl yet again, but Glynda pushed her free hand against it's chin to push it's mouth shut. _Keep it shut, don't let it's teeth free._

One horn on it's elbow managed to cut into the fabric covering Glynda's waist, causing a nice tear through her shirt with a gash to go with it as well as a choked scream of pain from Glyna. "Arg, Shit!" She continued to apply pressure to the swollen chin as the beast continued to struggle, a part of her hoping that the creature's teeth were beginning to break from the pressure.

She moved her knife above the creature's malformed head after it attempted to swipe her a few more times, before slamming the knife down to stab into the darkening flesh, blood of the same shade starting to leak out of the new wound. Before it had a chance to reel at the stab, Glynda brought up the knife and with the same force brought it slamming back down into the rotten skin, not hesitating to continue to repeat this process as the creature below her began to flail again.

It's arm came up again to slash at her as her knife attempted to come down on it, the arm managing to slap the knife away from Glynda's grasp and send it flying across to floor much to Glynda's dismay. Leaving her near defenceless against the creature as it began to fight back against the hand on it's chin, her other hand attempting to reach out towards the knife that lay so close, yet just so far.

She felt her weight shift unintentionally as the Grim struggles became more violent, it's arms beating against Glynda in hopes that it would land a fatal blow the woman's body. This stopped her progress in reaching the knife when she had to bring back her arm to stop an arm from driving it's horn into her eye, which was a struggle in itself as the beast applied it's strength to the attack and started to push her back.

 _This thing is stronger then me, I can't push it back much longer! I just need that knife…_ Her gaze darted towards the knife and looked towards the distance in between her and her weapon, judging it to far to reach from her current position. _I need to get off the Grim if I am to reach the knife, but me pinning it down was my only advantage._ Her gaze switched again as the horn started to close in on her eye, causing her to grit her teeth at the situation and decide on a plan.

If this plan had any chance of working she needed to be fast in grabbing the knife and returning to stab the Grim, if she wasn't fast enough the Grim would be the one pinning her down with it's teeth digging into her flesh. _I don't have a choice…_

It's jaws started to pry themselves apart to reveal the sharp gleaming teeth that seemed to look towards her with a menacing glare, giving her more incentive to act at that moment as she narrowed her eyes. Using most of her strength she gave the arm in her face one big push backwards, allowing her to duck her head and swing her body weight to the side, rolling off of the Grim and onto the floor. The momentary surprise of her action providing her a few seconds to act, not one to waste time she pushed her self up and rushed towards her fallen weapon.

A growl came from behind her as the creature began to move from the floor, adjusting it's arms as it pushed off from the floor and bounded after the scurrying woman. Glynda seemed to have better skill in her rush as she didn't have the disadvantage of hindering limbs, she only guessed this as she heard a growl of frustration from the Grim from behind her as it tumbled to the side off of it's horned hand.

Her knees only carried her so fast however as she felt her knee cap groan in pain as she hit to the floor knee first, her feet only managing to push her a few inches with every step. She could hear the beast behind her starting to get closer to her form, it's breath could be felt from behind her.

As the beast caught up to her with it's teeth bare for her to see, Glynda managed to reach out and firmly grasp the handle of the knife, the Grim letting out a roar as pushed off of the floor and pounced towards Glynda.

The woman whirled around on the spot with the knife back in hand to give extra momentum, driving the knife through to air and into the pouncing creature's head and forcing it through until she was pushing the Grim to the ground with all her might.

The knife dug deep into the flesh of the struggling Grim with minimal effort as dark blood gushed from it's wound, Glynda managing to hold the position as the Grim slowly but surely began to stop struggling, soon going completely limp and dropping to the floor, dead.

Glynda let out a gasp of her breath as she crawled back to lean on the wall, her chest and shoulders rising and falling with every intake. She readied the knife again on instinct as she heard footsteps approaching, these ones seeming more balanced then that of a Grim.

"Glynda, I found so-" Ozpin pushed through into the building to find the site of Glynda's struggle, blinking for a moment before striding over to Glynda and kneeling beside her with a medical kit in hand. "So, you've been busy"

Glynda chuckled slightly with a grimance as she adjusted her position and raised her shirt, revealing the gash from the grim's spikes. "I didn't call for help because I didn't want to alert it… In hines sight though…" She managed a hurt smile as Ozpin began to wrap a bandage around her wound, soon finishing with a roll of his eyes.

"Have you explored yet?" He inquired, to which Glynda only shook her head as she got to her feet. "As I was saying earlier, I found something. There are bandits nearby raiding a store, I don't know how long it will be until they come here, but I suggest we take whatever we can with haste"

Glynda nodded in agreement and proceeded into the room she had found the Grim in, her eyes surveying the multitude of scrapped objects and parts. _Empty cans, rotting apples, pages, a radio… Nothing of large value here…_

"Urg, I don't think there's anything to find here. Maybe we should just move before bandits arrive" She turned to Ozpin with a shrug as she phrased her suggestion, her breathing dropping to a slow and steady pace.

A shot rang out from the outside and echoed through out the building before Ozpin could attempt a reply to Glynda's question, causing both to instinctivly to drop to a crouch as they rushed towards the door to inspect the sudden shot.

As they approached the doorway they could hear a few grunts and the cock of a gun, a small deep chuckle comming from the same direction when tehy reached the window. "Stop moving before I shoot off your knee cap!"

Ozpin peered over the window while narrowly avoiding a cut from the broken glass, his eyes meeting a grim looking scene as a woman stared down her rifle as she aimed it at the man that stood in front of her. The woman looked fairly brutal with scars dotting her face along with a few blood stains on her coat, which made the red heaired man in front of her look almost posh. He was dorned in an aged green trenchcoat that covered most of his body, a white mask that seemed to be in the shape of a wolf's facial features sheltered the man's face, only letting an inkling of his pale skin visable.

The man stood silently with a glare boring into the woman's sneering face as she gave out a dark chuckle, gesturing with her gun as she began to speak. ''Alright, why don't you just take off that warm looking coat and hand over any valuables you have. Then I'll consider killing you quickly" Her only answer was his continued silence as he let his arm rest by his side. "What? You a mute or somthing? Hand over your shit, or should I just start bleeding ya, maybe leave you alive for the Grim"

It was then that the male finally muttered something that Ozpin just managed to hear from the distance, though it didn't really seem like a reply. "One shot, five second reloading time. Only four seconds needed."

"Huh? You say somthing asshole? Speak up!" She gestured a bit more with the gun to enphesise her deman, but the man only gave her a defying glare right back, to which she replied with a snarl. "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn ya when you get to the pearly gates!" She raised the gun with her finger on the trigger while the man instictivly twisted his foot, crouching slightly as she pulled back on the trigger.

As soon as she fired her weapon the man pushed off of his feet to side, the shot completly missing the man in a showcase of the woman's clunky aim. THis allowed him to rush forward as she staggered back due to the recoil, only just managing to get her bearings as the man reached her and grabbed the rifle, pushing it up and slamming it into the side of her head.

The woman lurched sideways as she attempted to regain her lost balance, but the man simply drive his knee into her stomach, knocking the widn out of her and alowing him to take the rifle and slam his elbow into her back, sending the woman to the ground.

She landed with a gasp of pain as her head crashed with a wound now gushing from her forehead, her arms struggling forward to try and push herself up, but the man didn't allow her as he stomped his foot on her back, holding the gun with a disgusted sigh while placing his other foot on her head. "What a waste of ammo" With that he slammed his foot down into the back of her neck, giving out a loud snap as the woman joined the world of the dead, leaving only the blood of her gushing wound behind.

The man let out a sigh before reaching into the depths of his trenchcoat to retrive what seemed to be some sort of walkie-talkie, his thumb slipping over a button and pressing down on it as he began to spoke. "I ran into some bandits on my way to Jared, they're probably the reason he's not been responding"

After a few moments of static there came a short reply. "Aww, and I liked Jared. He had such a punchable face" The voice held a swauve and lighthearted tone, the easy disregard for the life of 'Jared' seemed to annoy the male (And angered both Ozpin and Glynda). "Just leave our mark and come back, we have no further buissness in this dry ghost town"

The man simply nodded to himself as he placed the device back into the folds of his trenchcoat, his hand then pulling out a roll of paper, which he unrolled and dropped onto the corpse of the bandit. Turning on his heel and proceeding to walk down the abandoned street in silence aside from his footsteps.

When the man had dissappeared from sight both Glynda and Ozpin vaulted over the window, making their way quickly over to where the corpse now laid with the paper atop it. Ozpin was quick to kneel down and pick up the paper and roll it out fully to get a good look, the sight that greeted him was simple, yet strange.

It showed a large face of what seemed to be a blood red wolf that held three scars that crossed through it, behind it a bright start seemed to light it up as if trying to depict a heavenly glow. Below the wolf was a few bold sentences

 **Through the blood of humanity, through the darkest of days.**

 **Follow the whispers of purity to Salvation**

"There's just a line of numbers after that... Wait, is that a radio frequency?" Ozpin blinked for a second as he examined the poster with interest, adjsuting his specticles as he rolled it back up and pocketed it. "Wasn't there a radio back in the building?"

A few minuets later the two found them selves in back in the small room with the body of the now dead Grim letting out a rotton smell in the other room, Glynda fiddling with the radio as Ozpin read out the numbers. After a few more tries and a sequence of static, there came a simple sequence of beeps to confirm that there was a broadcast.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Glynda muttered as the beeping continued a few more times, suddenly stopping as a small out take of brezth was heard over it, the person on the other end began to talk.

"This world is a desolate ruin of what it once was, a husk that continues to drain every living being that graces it. We are force to hide and wallow in the darkest pits to survive, digging through corpses that we made to survive. The world is no more. But, there is hope. Through the blood of humanity, through the darkest of days. Rising from the ashes of civilisationa and rising above that of the Grim. We are hope, we are purity, we are the future. We will lead you to the promise land, to salvasion. We are, The White Fang"


	11. Chapter 11: Under my Wing

The house stood abandoned and lonely on it's patch in the street, being the sole building beside the stone path that had remained mostly intact with the rest having been demolished to the ground by a complication of grim and mother nature herself. The walls held vein like cracks that stretched against the surface of the stone, spreading throughout the house with only the wind to accompany it, the occasional creak from the strained foundation.

It's broken staircase acted like a wounded face as what was left of it's beauty flickered through the cracks and empty remains, the echo of a light giggle could be heard through out the home, distant and distorted in nature of what once was. It made a tear decide to make it's venture from the corner of Yang's eye and drip down her cheek as she looked through the once lively rooms, a sad smile growing on her face.

"Hey, Yang!" She heard Pyrrha call from outside as Yang placed her hand on one of the walls, breathing in deeply as Pyrrha continued. "Ozpin and Glynda are gonna kill us if we don't get to the meeting point before them"

"Just...Give me a moment, please" Her hand trailed along the cracks in the wall that almost stinged her to touch, a slight pain in the back of her head blared as the memory flashed. _The creature lunged towards her, slamming the small seven year old into the wall, her ears ringing as the pain rang through out her head._

Her gaze turned to look towards the old stairs that ran up at a short length to the top of the house,l empty spaces littering the steps as each pointed end glared at each other. _Cries echoed from the upper level of the house from the right, most likely from Ruby's own room where she hid under the bed covers. Yang pushed past the raging creature that was once her mother as she shook away her distorted vision, the pain still ringing in her head as she took quick steps up the stairs towards the intimidating glare of the grandfather clock at the top. The creature snarled behind her as she reached the top and stood beside the clock, it's jaws snapping as it attempted to get up the steps. The seven year old slammed her shoulder into the clock's side, causing a slight tremour and soon providing Yang with a rocking motion as she pushed more, the clock finally bucking off of it's legs and slamming down into the steps. The head of the clock slammed into the creatures leg as it attempted to dart back away from the danger, though this did not seem to affect the creature much as the steps groaned at the weight of the clock at first, soon breaking apart under the impact of it._

She turned around and took two slow steps towards the fallen cupboard which had a coating of dust now after the long years in silent stillness, the stench that covered it destroyed Yang's nose as it still had not faded. _The creature managed to lunge upwards and grasp Yang by her ankle and with a strong tug sent the girl falling forward down the stairs, her shoulder slamming into what the creature used as a forehead and sending them both back down to the floor. Yang heard the beast growl at her as it's hand came up to throw her small body off of it, causing her to have a less then comfortable meeting with the ground that managed to draw blood from her arm that almost made her want to throw up. The creature got to it's feet in an almost shaky fashion, it's stance unbalanced as it dragged it's feet from side to side. There was only one thought that chorused through Yang's mind when she charged at the creature, Ruby._

"No mother left...only me..."

 _The suddenness and surprise of the charge allowed Yang the leverage to push the creature back into the cupboard, causing a vibration to run through the wood that threatened it to fall against the weight of the two. With the balance regained the creature merely pushed Yang back onto the floor, soon sheltering the girl with it's teeth looming over her head bare and ready to attack. The cupboard groaned behind them as it began to tip forwards, it's dorrs opening at the change of rotation, objects falling from it's top and hitting the larger woman's body. Yang cried out as the creature let out a loud growl, Yang pushed her hands against the floor to send her body off to the side, rolling away from under the creature as the cupboard finally fully fell through the air and landed squarely on the creature, giving out one final scream as the house finally fell into silence._

Yang stared at the cupboard with her smile still there with bitterness invading her eyes, her hands tempted to reach out and attempt to lift the heavy structure of wood just to see what was left of the creature's corpse after all this time, but she wouldn't. She knew it would only bring false self-guilt that shouldn't exist, she knew what she did and she didn't regret her actions, it had to be done. For Ruby.

 _"Yang, I know it's been hard with me not being around much...Having to take care of Ruby and all..."_

 _"I don't know what you mean, mom. I love Ruby!"_

 _"I know you do, dear. Both me and her sleep better knowing that she'll always have you"_

 _"Yeah, always! And if anybody's got a problem with that, I'll do what dad does to people who take away his milk!"_

 _"I'll be holding you to that, Yang" A smile, a simple, distant and warm smile._

''Don't worry, Mom. She's in good hands..."

* * *

''Ah, my hands! They burn!" Jaune moaned out in pain as he pushed his hand outwards, the red mark on his arm gleaming bright towards Ruby as she hovered over it with a teasing smile. His knuckles vibrated upwards and downwards in a twitching motion that gave him the look of a slightly spastic individual, the rest of her hand shaking slightly.

"Well, you shouldn't of punched the wall then'' Her reply was through a giggle as she leaned back against the wall beside him with her legs stretched out to rest on a rock on the sloped hill in front of her, raven hair falling in front of her silver eyes and slightly blocking her view of the older boy that was cradling his 'wounded' hand.

The two had returned to the crate and it's tower of vulnerable cans months after the last time they held the BB gun to continue a one man competition of marksmanship, Jaune trying to beat his own record of three cans in a row, yet to his own frustration his aim seemed to be just off (Though that could be due to Ruby constantly shouting 'Spider!', before looking away with an innocent whistle) and continued to miss the cans. To solve his frustrations Jaune found it fruitful and preferable to ram his fist into the wall of the rising building that dipped of the edge of a rocky slope, resulting in his bruised knuckles.

Jaune looked back down at his bruised hand to examine it yet again, a slight wave of shame overcoming him at the sight of the consequence for what even he knew was a stupid act, a sigh of disappointment escaping from his lips. ''Yeah, I know. It was a...stupid thing to do. I seem to do that a lot" He let his hand rest on the ground to his side with no care to the irritating yearns that came from his pained hand muscles.

Ruby gazed at her best friend's slumped position as his atmosphere was filled with that of a disappointing nature when he laid his hand on the ground, he meant to be teasing comment made in slight jest seemingly effecting him. Through the long years that Ruby had know the blonde the little girl had noticed the slight envious nature that Jaune had to him, no matter what he always had that slight jealously and self loathing in his eyes whenever he looked at others.

He had the tendency to mutter insults to himself in a mocking tone with regret littering his voice, in some ways to just tell himself that he screwed up and others to just ask himself why he can't do a specific activity. She disliked how much he would tear himself up if he ever screwed up any type of task, o matter how hard or easy, big or small.

While Ruby was most certainly as carefree as you could be considering the circumstance with a voice she had always aimed to project over all, she defiantly found that she was rather awkward with social interaction. Yeah, she could sometimes have successful conversations with Jaune and others, though that was most helped by the fact that they did the most talking as she held her ears open. This had her sitting as just one big set of ears and eyes for people's problems, maybe if she ahd better experience int his area she would of had a full blown conversation with the boy to find the root of his problem, but for now she would just wait and observe, looking for the signs and attempting to cheer him up with little uplifting words.

"Though I do have to admit, that wall had it coming. Did you see the way it was looking at us?" She sudden piped up with a nervous smile on her lips as she poked the wall, her eyes narrowed to scowl at it with annoyance and anger. Jaune's head turning towards her so that his eyes gaze in her direct, his hand still on the ground as a confused expression over took his features.

''Eh?'' He blinked once or twice at the sudden accusations against the lifeless material of the wall that now faced the mock glare of Ruby's innocent face, his eyebrow raised high along with his upper lip as it separated from his bottom to let out a question to what the small girl was going on about, but the girl in question managed to beat him to it and block off his voice with hers.

''I mean, that thing looked like it was about to attack. Scary!'' Ruby gestured rapidly with her fingers backing away from the wall, her rear soon shuffling backwards to follow the fleeing fingers. This was before she suddenly got onto her knees to crawl towards Jaune and reach forward to retrieve his hand, raising it up high. "Good thing you showed it who's boss, or it could of seriously hurt us. It's probably shaking just to look at you, go Juane!''

Jaune knew that this was entirely untrue even for the small girl, as even with the wild and vast imagination that ran throughout the small head of the little girl he knew that she was simply making it up to drag him out of the stupor. And you knwo what? It did, just a little. Just to know that she was at least trying, that she was willing to make herself look like an crazy idiot (Something he knew she hated being called by Weiss) jsut to make him feel better. It made him feel worth a damn.

Jaune broke out into a smile as he gaze toward Ruby with his hand still high and triumphant at the warding off of the wall "And did you hear it? It was so rude. Called Yang a baboon!" He continued her ridiculous lie with the gusto and confidence of a game show host, his row of teeth showing through his smile as he reached down to run his hand through the girl's hair, ruffling the raven locks and gaining a few more giggles from her. They're eyes met to iniatiate a silent contact, a firm nod with another returned, no words were needed. _Thank you, Rubes._

"You two are like a family greeting card sometimes, you know that?" Ren's dry chuckle came from a small distance away as he approached them with a small tired bag over his eyes, his approach made in slow steps with his shoulders slumped and his hands in the depths of his pockets.

The blond boy tilted his head in slight confusion at his friend's sudden appearance, though a smile soon overtook it as he examined the other boy's face to see that for once in a blue moon it didn't have that coldness about it that usually enveloped the once proud boy. This prompted Jaune to get to his feet with his smile clear as he reached up to rub the back of his neck, Ruby taking hold of his arm to help herself to her feet. "Well, my dad always did say I'd be good as a model"

Ren raised an eyebrow at his friend in firm disbelief as his eyes looked the blond over, a small roll of the eyes following suit along with a teasing remark. "Maybe if you take away all the grime and rips" He continued his journey across the ground to find himself in front of the dynamic duo with the small girl as eager and jumpy as ever, his gaze going down to notice the usual gun used for training. "You dusting up on your marksmanship?"

Jaune also found his gaze trailing to look towards the fire arm that laid unattended on the ground beside the spot of the wall he allowed to destroy his fist, a nervous laugh escaping his lips as he relived the memory of he multiple missed shots and groans of annoyance. "Well, more failing at it. Couldn't hit a a statue if it stood directly in front of me''

"Well, you know what they say'' The raven haired boy bent his legs to kneel down quickly and in one move swipe the gun from the ground and turn around to face the mocking glares of the cans, the crate they stood apron perfectly had it's side facing the trio to display the targeted cans better. "Practise makes perfect"

He raised the gun and knelt down to one knee with a determined look in his eyes mixed in with the drowsiness, the gun held with one hand while the other cradled the butt of the weapon, not to hold but to be there in-case it buckled out of control. The firearm raised to level with Ren's focused eyes as he took aim and took the shot, the rounds pelted from the gun and successfully slammed into and downed one of the accursed cans.

"Nice shot!" Ruby cheered on in a volume level that threatened to break the ears of the boy next to her, even though Ren didn't have the two in his vision he could that the small girl was putting on a glowing smile as she happily continued to slam her hands together in quick motions. The gun was turned to aim at the next target, there was a pull of the trigger and again the round hit with success, another applause from Ruby following with a groan from Jaune as she attempted to get his wounded hand to clap along. _Trying to spread the cheer, no matter the injuries it causes... Almso like..._ Ren let out a cough as he lowered the gun and turned to Ruby with a blank expression. "Hey, Ruby. You learned to shoot yet?"

As predicted the girl's face lit up like it was Christmas day and she was face with a large wrapped up parcel, it made it hard for Ren to resist a natural and joy filled chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Well...Yang always said I wasn't old enough to shoot yet..." Ren gestured with the gun for her to come over towards him to which the reply was an instant as she took off like a bullet to crouch next to him, her hands out to greedily take the gun from him with a hopful expression.

"Do you really think that's a good idea, Ren? Yang's awefully protective of ruby and the girl is worse enough without weapons..." Jaune expressed his concerns weven with Ruby putting on her best pout at the boy in an attempt to seduce him to their side (The best side in her opinion), a snort heard from Ren as he pushed the weapon into Ruby's awaiting hands.

"Nonsense, a gun is your best friend out in the wild. You'll rely on it twice as much as yourself to live, learning how to use one is best for your survival. THe earlier you start, the better" Ruby let out a nod in agreement with the boy's statement, her fingers eagerly clasping the gun and twisting it to fit her small pale hands. She looked towards the cans with determination in her gaze as she attempted to imitate the position and grip of Ren's own demonstration, though the boy in question noticed this and soonplaced his fingers on Ruby's to help correct her grip. "Remember, one hand gripping the handle like your life depends on it, while the other waits to direct away from harm. Keep the back aimed at you so that it doesn't fly out of your grip when the recoil hits you hard, then just aim carfully and shoot. Simple."

"Yeah...Simple..." Ruby gave out a gulp as she attempted to follow Ren's tips, the gun force up to try and meet her eye as she pushed out her ellbow and narrowed her eyes towards the cans, her brain concentrating on her target. There had to be no hesitation, you had to trust your aim was true, but you had to make it count. Ammo should never be wasted. Ruby remembered some of this from past talks she over heard Ozpin say to others once, making her think that maybe Ren had been following Ozpin's word s more then the boy would like to admit.

But, pushing all that to the side of her head to ponder on alone another day she took aim at the cans, her eye sight imagining bulls-eyes on each of the cans (A glowing red target helped in her view), a short breath drew and withheld before she finally decided to do it. Her finger pulled back on teh trigger, the 'ammo' inside the gun bursting out of the top and pushing the gun into her grip slightly, shooting through the air and successfully causing the fall of a can.

There was a impressed grunt from Ren along with a pat on the back, with Jaune in the background muttering about beginners luck though still giving praise to the girl and a smile. Ruby giggled and performed a small victory dance for a few moments, but stopping soon after to take aim again, she was wa little off last time even if successful over all, she wanted to make sure her aim was perfect.

"You're a natural, Ruby. Though that doesn't mean you should stop practicing" Ren commented as Ruby continued her fireing, some hitting dead on with others completely missing the cans. "But I'm sure we can make a crack shot out of you in no time"


	12. Chapter 12: Nothing but depressed clouds

A dim and unappealing sun lorded over a rather dreary morning, its bored glow illuminating the soft and damp ground that wrapped around Beacon like a wet towel. The guards shivered at the chill wind that passed through what remained of their armour and through to their spines, even after all these years all were rather ready to duck inside and tunnel under the earth for warmth in the unkind weather, though the one thought that helped them through the cold by an inch was ''At least it wasn't winter''.

Winter was like a shining nightmare for the remainders of civilisation no matter what part of the globe you resolved to hide in, at first Winter seems like the best of times with the creatures that they have to come to label as Grimm would find themselves shying away to the darkness, leaving the survivors in peace for once in a lifetime. But then many more problems seem to rise from under the foundation of ice, the crushing cold becoming a deadly foe to all that walk, making any search for food and water a suicide run. Most would later find the frozen corpses of their fellow survivors, their life slowly melting away with the rising of the sun.

The familiar marching of the usual morning prowler sounded throughout the outpost, the woman's combat boots tearing through the mud that began to spread around the ground like a disease, her helmet off to reveal the short locks of crimson hair that littered her mostly bald head. Her emerald harsh eyes narrowed down on the wavering cloth roof of 'Sleeping Zone C' where her new prey lied in deep slumber, her approach signalling what would be a rather rude awakening for the slumbering children.

Stonewall made her way up the stone path without a care for how much noise she made in the process, some small percentages of stone getting themselves pulled up to the soles of her boot along with the mud that clung to her. Within moments the tall armoured woman stood in front of the poor materials and people that made up the sleeping zone, most were still deep in sleep with their heads stuck firmly in the middle of what they would call their pillows. Others were either already awake or standing or were still in the middle of rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as they prepared for the day ahead.

There were the few that were only now entering the zone as they discarded gloves and hats as they crashed into their mats, only just returning from a round of chores deep into the night, the rising sun their signal to shut off. Stonewalls gaze didn't linger on these ones as their day of work is done and they were enjoying their well-deserved rest, her gaze however rested on the ones still sleeping soundly, most likely dreaming about joyful and unique d- ''Alright, Lackies. Walk away from Dream Land, get your thumb out of your mouth and get your mind into gear. We have walls to repair, crops to tend to and Grim blood to spill!"

The reaction was an instant whirl of movement, every sleeping child was on their feet in an instance with their arms straight and their eyes already started to nod off. Her voice was firm and high in volume with a hint of annoyance littering her tone as she talked. "Right, for most of us this a day as usual. Watchers to their posts, though wrap up warm it's a chilly day. Seedlings, good news for you we have a new patch to plant in. Clankers, we have plenty of bare walls in need of some metal. Though I do have to warn you that one of our few toilets have broken down for the third time this week, Nikos and Bunny Ears. Thanks for volunteering-No, I don't care if you didn't raise your hands. Now go"

There were a few sighs of relief, a few groans of frustration and desperate annoyance at their prospects, before all the workers began to move towards the outskirts of their zone to tend to their jobs for today. "And New Blooded Scavengers, come with me. I'll be showing you the ropes. Let's hope this day decides it not to be a noose"

As few from the crowd begun their trek towards the crimson haired woman, Ruby stood still for the moment with a nervous expression on her face, taking a second to practise breathing exercises that Ren had taught her over the months. Ruby Rose, now a fifteen year old girl just peeking into the start of adulthood. Eight years since this whole hell dragged her into this nightmare and now she finally stood in firing range, about to enter in fate's pondering grip for the first time since before she was allowed behind the walls that had been her sanctuary for these years.

She felt and arm hook around her waist to pull the small girl into a hug, a small tilt of her head proved that her blonde sister now held a tight grip on the still short young woman. Ruby's older sister had a sad smile etching on her lips, the natural worry and protectiveness that her sister supplied was clearly shown in the girl's eyes.

"Okay, what are the rules of survival?" Her question was quirk, her gaze still firm as her hold on the girl.

Ruby merely rolled her eyes and squirmed in his sister's arms "Yaaaaang, we already went over this last night!" The response was a stern gaze that made the small girl swear that Yang's eyes would pop out of their sockets.

"Rules. Now." Her scathing gaze continued as Ruby allowed her eyes to roll.

"Don't waste supplies, shoot as a last resort, stay with the group and never approach a stranger without a weapon" Ruby managed to list out in one breath under Yang's gaze, though the blond seemed to not be satisfied with the answer. "And the only good Grim is a dead Grim"

"Good girl, now be careful out there!" With that Yang let go of her younger sister and made her way past the girl, her eyes still nervous and constantly darting back for brief glimpses of Ruby.

It wasn't long after the encounter that Ruby felt Jaune's hand grasp her shoulder (After deciding against hugging her like Yang) firmly, the tall boy gazing down at her with a simple grin. "Yang worries too much, you'll be fine!" His golden locks had grown out a bit to drape over his ears and irritate his eyes, though there were obvious points where his hair was roughly cut by his own hand in an inexperienced manner, though he still managed to keep his goofy grin after all these years.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Everyone's acting like I'll turn back up as pale, dark and pointy" Ruby sighed as she ran a hand through her raven hair, her silver eyes looking up at her best friend with a tired look. "I mean, I know they have good reason to. But I'm fithteen now, I've spent years learning all this stuff just like they have!"

"Fithteen? Could of fooled me, Shortie" With that, Jaune ruffled the girls hair with a small chuckle that was followed by her own groans of protest as she slapped his hand.

"I'm not short! Just…vertically challenged…" Her arms came up to cross with her gaze more stern with a hint of childish moping.

The boy gave out a small smiled as he continued to gaze at her, his hands retreating from their ruffling's at the slaps, before he began to lament to her "Even so, I wish I was going with you"

"You wish you were out there with Grim scratching at your heels and Stonewall kicking you across the city?" The small girl raised her eyebrow inquisitively.

"Well…No, but you know what I mean. I'd prefer to be out there to watch your back!"

"I'm sure that my back will be fine, I don't think it needs to be fed or anything…" Ruby directed her arm to bend by her sides and poke her back. "I don't think you need to watch it…"

"That wasn't what I meant and you know it!" Jaune exclaimed, curious to if the small girl actually did think her back was a sentient being.

Ruby let out a small giggle at the boy's rather confused face, returning her arms to their originally crossed position. "I was joking, jeez"

"Just…Make sure to save the jokes for when you get back, I don't want a grim to impale you mid-sentence" Jaune's face held a serious air about it, keeping his gaze on Ruby until she finally nodded back at him in confirmation.

"No problem. Besides, I'll have Weiss watching my back" Ruby exclaimed with a calm pat on Jaune's shoulder, before turning around and moving to make sure that she had all the equipment Stonewall had asked for.

Jaune detailed to Ruby after a short snort at the notion "Yeah, she'll watch your back. Far away, behind the safety of a wall with a camera in hand" Prompting Ruby to frown at the boy with her hand raised in a sort of scolding gesture.

"Jaune. Don't talk about her like that, she's a friend…hopefully. I know she wouldn't do that!" The girl shot a scolding gaze towards Jaune, causing the boy to bite his lip slightly and find a sudden interest in the ground.

"It's just-… Sorry, Ruby. But just because Weiss and you are friends, doesn't mean we trust her. You know how it is" Jaune explained to justify his (And others of the group's) aggression towards the snow haired Schnee that had never got on well with the group, their first meeting never was the best of introductions.

"That's why you need to talk to her, she's not that bad. Yeah, she may yell and belittle… a lot…But she's a good person" The small girl barked towards the boy with her arms hanging by her sides, Jaune only caring to give a raised eyebrow. "She looked at clouds with me!''

"Rose! Get your pale ass over here before we decide to leave you behind!" Stonewall's voice seemed to slam into their ears like a slow needle handled by the untrained, making Ruby frown further.

"You worry about Weiss leaving me for dead when the number one candidate is taking the lead…"

"We'll finish this discussion later then" Jaune chuckled at the discomforted expression on Ruby's face, kneeling down to pull her into a hug. "If worse comes to worse, I think Stonewall makes a good shield"

"Rose!"

Ruby grinned sheepishly before hopping away from the embrace, shortly turning around and taking off towards her screaming 'Guardian'. Stonewall keeping up a menacing glare as the small girl made her way over to the woman, the sheepish grin still plastered between her lips as she attempted to apologise for her timing, to which Stonewall just ignored and turned away. "Good to know you finally decided to show up. NOW MOVE IT!"

Others fell into some sort of defensive wall of bodies behind Stonewall, pulling Ruby at the very back where she could barely see over anyone's shoulder and mostly blind to where they were going. Though fortunately for her she could only just see a swirl of white ex-pampered hair that seemed to stick out above the dark mixes of black and brown.

"Hey, Weiss!" Ruby called to the snow haired girl with her hands cupping the bottom of her mouth, her raised voice seemingly annoying the bodies in front of her (At least judging by the groans as they parted). Weiss's response was seemingly non-existent as the girl didn't even twitch at Ruby's call, only continuing in her effort to find the space in front of her interesting. _Did she even hear me!?_ This prompted Ruby to push on forward through the slightly parted wall to fully jab her finger into the other girl's side, this time the reaction becoming instant as Weiss let out a small scream of pain, her hand instantly reaching down to cover her side as she turned her eyes to glare down at Ruby.

"What in Ohm's name was that for!?" Weiss practically screamed at the girl while clasping her 'wounded' side. "That hurt! A lot!"

"Well I had to get your attention somehow" Ruby gave a shrug as Weiss started to move her hand in a calm circle around the poked area.

The white haired girl gave a disappointed frown along with a glare as she spoke "But did you have to do it THAT HARD!?" The question went unanswered as Ruby took to giggling nervously with her hand behind her back, now walking side-by-side with Weiss.

"The day's freezing, I wouldn't be surprised if we turn into icicles before we get to...uh…Where ever we're going" Ruby found herself rubbing her hands together in an attempt to keep the remaining warmth she had and protect it against the morning air, though looking to her partner for the moment she noticed that Weiss didn't seem that bothered by it. "Though I've been saying that for a week, Yang always tells me that I should feel lucky for not going out during the winter"

"Winter is the most dangerous time of the year, the Grim become harder to see, making surviving an encounter only up to luck. Though if that doesn't get you killed the search for a good shelter will" Weiss had her finger up and wiggling from side to side slightly in front of her serious expression. "Trust me, Yang's not kidding that you should feel lucky"

"I know she wasn't kidding, she put on her serious face and everything!" Ruby exclaimed to Weiss, the volume of her voice drawing in a few annoyed glances from the others walking with them. "She had her knee's bent, her nose scrunched up and her eyes were so scary!"

"Ruby, quiet down! You're hurting ears…"

"Bu-"

"Rose, shut your trap before I sow it shut!" Stonewall's commanding tone was not as loud, but still seemed to pack as much anger behind it "I don't want a pack of Grim to come upon us because they were attracted to your yelling"

"Sorry, Miss…" The group continued to walk in silence after that with Ruby keeping her hands clamped on her mouth, aiming to avoid possibly angering the leading woman no matter how much she wanted to speak; though after the silence continued for twenty minutes the small girl figured out that she could just attempt to speak quietly. "Hey, Weiss?"

"What is it now, Ruby?"

Ruby rushed a small bit as she realized that Weiss and the rest of the group were walking much faster than her, causing a small growing pain to start in her legs that annoyed her to no end. _This walking's gonna kill me, I hope we stop soon._ She finally caught up with Weiss while groaning slightly, looking up at the white haired girl with a small smile. "So, any word from your dad yet?"

Weiss's expression changed to a mix between clear depression and slight anger (Most likely at Ruby for bringing the subject up). "No, Ruby. I haven't heard from him, just like last year and the year before that"

"Too bad, I'm sure he'll find you one day!" Ruby gave Weiss an encouraging smile as the older girl only sighed.

"Ruby, he's not coming…"

"Of course he is! One of these days!"

"It's been years, Ruby"

"So? The worlds a big place, I bet he's still charging through Grimm looking for you!" Ruby gave Weiss a thumbs up and another smile as she continued to exclaim (In a quieter voice this time) "He's probably just looking in another country, one of these days he'll be knocking at Beacon's door with your picture in hand"

Weiss sighed again, seeing that small girl wouldn't see the reasonable outlook on the situation, though only just muttering under her breath. "Yeah… One of these days"

The sun was still wiping the dreariness from its gaze when the small group arrived at the city ruins, Stonewall stopping them by the road that led into the assortment of towering rubble and signaling them to crouch. "Right, we're going to split up into three mini-groups now. If anyone is unclear on what they're doing, ask now. Because you'll have no time for questions when you go in"

No one spoke up at this point, they'd all had this conversation a million times before this day. Led by one of the three adults, each group would scavenge around specific locations of the city for exactly one hour. When the hour was up tall the groups would return to the meeting point outside the city, no matter what they were doing as the groups that return could not afford to wait or go looking for the late comers.

"Good" Stonewall nodded to the other two adults and started to spread out, the red head motioning to Ruby and Weiss to come with her. "And remember, avoid confrontation with everything unknown and anything human at all cost"

The two girls quickly followed behind Stonewall with both holding equally uneasy expressions, which Stonewall seemed to not care to take notice of as she bounded forward with her eyes constantly surveying the area.

Stonewall wasted no time in pushing herself and the two girls to quickly enter the city, it was understandable as they only had an hour to do what they came here to do and that included how much they wished to dawdle around the outside. Ruby already felt her feet hurting again in her attempts to keep up with the quick and nimble woman in front of her, looking to Weiss she could see that her friend was having a less torturous level of discomfort from the speed. _It's because she has longer legs, isn't it?_ Ruby mentally pouted as Weiss began to catch up to Stonewall, having no problem with making small hops over obstacles of stone, wood and metal.

They soon arrived (To Ruby's relief) at the first building that Stonewall saw fit to be looted, it was a small building that was mostly out of the way of the empty street, protective metal coverings placed where the windows should have been with a small nameplate hanging from the top of the door frame.

"Dust till Dawn?" Stonewall read out loud as she tore her gaze away from the nameplate, her gaze now shifting to the metal with a slightly impressed whistle, her hand pushing against the would-be windows. "Someone was hiding out here, the metal to protect from intruders" Her hand reached out to caress the door knob, testing it out, the knob being almost rigid and unmovable. "Locked…"

"Maybe we ca-" Weiss would of finished her sentence if she wasn't completely interrupted as off in the distance, loud and clear for all three, a gunshot sounded. Before Ruby or Weiss could react an arm wrapped around their waists and yanked them backwards, a low, but audible growl following them from nearby.

 **Technically I have the next chapter ready for upload, but I looked back on it and thought to add an extra part to make sure a plot point was mentioned. So...Expect the next chapter soonish.**


	13. One second as Steel, another as Sand

Ozpin paced around the hand held radio with his face screwed up in frustration, his teeth parted slightly to nibble on his bottom lip every few seconds, a small and barley functional clock making an assortments of pathetic rings beside him. His gloved hand came up to its seemingly permanent position on his chin, stroking away at the growing whips of hair that desperately grew to form a small stubble.

Oobleck and Glynda sighed as they watched the man wonder in an aimless annoyance, like a light cloud had overcome him. "Pacing the room won't make the radio won't respond faster" Glynda pointed out, breaking through the clouded mind and stopping Ozpin in his tracks, his head soon turning to look towards her.

"I know that, but the pacing helps me, keeps my mind active. Keeps me… Calm" Oobleck raised an eyebrow towards Ozpin, 'calm' wasn't exactly the term he would use to describe his friend's foot movements.

"This is the first break we've had in a while, don't waste it tiring yourself out, Old boy" Ozpin rolled his eyes at Oobleck's words, approaching the makeshift table they had put together and collapsing down to sit on the floor. "Now sit down, breath in and drink your coffee"

"You mean the hot water?" Glynda interjected, adjusting her loose strands of hair and giving the fast talking ex-teacher a bemused look.

"Coffee" He responded with an indignant expression.

"It's just water…" Ozpin repeated Glynda's words with a small growing smirk

"It is Coffee!"

"The closest thing we've had to coffee was when Jaune and Yang thought putting mud inside their water cups would make it taste better" Ozpin crossed his arms and leaned back slightly to give the other man a good view of his smirking face.

''It looks like coffee, taste like coffee and as long as I squint my eyes, it is coffee" Oobleck reached over to Ozpin's cup and snatched it up in his hand, pushing himself towards Ozpin and grip the man by his tattered shirt. Pulling the man towards him, Oobleck held up the cup and began to force the liquid down Ozpin's throat. "TASTE THE CAFFINE!"

Glynda found herself rubbing her temples at the scene, Ozpin struggling against the surprisingly strong grip of the rather thin man, Oobleck carrying a small obsessed glint in his eye. The trio's sudden moment of complete absurdity was cut short by the mixed groan and buzz of the Radio, a series of coughs heard from the responder as the three adults simply stared at the small device.

Opzin was quick to jump into action as the coughing ceased, the silver haired man pushed Oobleck and the boiling water away from him and bolted towards the radio with an almost rabbed facial expression. As soon as he reached the small device he snatched it from the table and brought it to his lips, his thumb pressing against the responder button. "This is Ozpin, contacting from the Beacon Outpost. Over."

"Reading you loud and clear, Sir. What's your status? Over." The question pulled at Ozpin's lips for a moment, before he replied. His voice defiantly not as 'respectful' as he would of liked.

"As I said last time, the outpost is secure overall. But supplies are running low and the weather is starting to get worse, some are fearful that it might reach dangerous conditions…Well, more dangerous than they already are" Ozpin paused for a moment, taking a deep breath of calm of his surprisingly tense and strained voice. "Fortunately there seems to be very low Grimm activity around this area now a days, though I can't say if the weather conditions are the cause. Over"

There was some muttering heard from the other end as the responder seemed to exchange words with someone else before returning to the radio. "Are your people good enough to travel? Over"

Ozpin blinked at the question, turning his head to the other two adults in the room and gave them a confused look, who in turn returned a shrug as Ozpin turned back to the radio. "Of course, we've always been ready in case we have to move away from the outpost fast. Why do you ask? Over."

"The order's going out to all the outposts we can contact, a return order. Some of our forces are being sent a cross the sea to make contact with Atlas, with that we requesting that all outposts prepare to make their way back to Vale. Over"

"V-Vale!? But that's…at least a few weeks' worth of travel!" Ozpin had not heard much of Vale since the outbreak, what little he had heard of it was desperate rumours of hope to him. Some said it was supposed to be some sort of sanctuary, some said it was… Safe. It didn't make it any easier to believe when all military contact refused to talk about the status of Vale, leading Ozpin to believe that they were having issues of their own.

"We'll be sending squads to your location with supplies in order to guide you and your people back here. Over''

"That's a very risky plan, a whole outpost and military personnel marching through the hills? It'll be easy pickings for the Grimm. Over."

"It's like you said, the Grimm aren't…" A noticeable pause, coupled with the slightly nervous tone of the speaker made Ozpin suspicious. "They're not frequent around your area any more. Over"

"It's just…" Ozpin trailed off, his mind still latching onto that nervous tone. _I_ _'_ _m getting way to jumpy now a days_ _…_

"If you're so worried about our plans, we can just leave you there to your own devices. Over"

Ozpin paused on the reply, even if it wasn't meant to the words seemed to come off as a threat _Follow the plan or we leave you to die_ He found himself looking towards the other two for a moment, who were both nodding their heads furiously, not in the least bit amused by Ozpin's concerns. "No, we'll be ready by the time your forces appear. Over"

"We'll be in contact again soon, over and out" The static filled the room as Glynda let small relived sigh, Oobleck slumping into his seat with a smile.

"We're saved!" It didn't take a genius to figure out that the two was one of the large believers in Vale's rumours, Ozpin shaking his head at the two's happiness, to which Glynda frowned at and asked. "What's wrong?"

"You're acting like the world just got renewed" Ozpin sighed as he made his way over to the table.

"They're going to take us to Vale, it's supposed to be some sort of sanctuary, isn't it?" Glynda looked up to Ozpin with curious gazes.

"I don't believe in random rumors made up by those desperate for hope" He crossed his arms as he stated it bluntly "Besides, I've learned over the years that when hopes around the corner. The worst is yet to come"

* * *

Ruby felt her throat throb under the pressure of the trapped breath, wishing for a release it was unable to get due to the gloved hand that covered the edge of her lips in its tight grip on the girl's face. Her eyes darted in rush motions from side to side, looking for the source of the sound of her friends fellow struggling against Stonewall's vice grip.

"Don't move, don't blink. Don't make a sound" Stonewall's harsh whisper made its way into Ruby's ear and caused a chill to past down her spine, her knees squeezing together and her teeth grinding against one another to keep her voice contained.

All three pairs of eyes were drawn towards the door of 'Dust till Dawn' where black claws, sharpened like shears, scratched across the metal surface of the double doors. A snarl let through from behind the creatures rows of sharp teeth, small amounts of bloodied flakes of flesh falling from the depths of its mouth, though whoever it belonged to the flesh of its victims or the result of it mistakenly sinking it's teeth into the pale pink flesh of its gums, Ruby couldn't tell. The strangest thing was that the creature seemed to have no visible way of actually seeing. _Does it not have eyes? Maybe I just can't see them from here..._

The creature prodded the doors, seemingly curious about the obstacle before attempting to ram it with its own head, resulting in a distorted scream of pain. The twisted head of the beast could only seem to look upwards, its neck bones too stiff to move as it stumbled around in a daze. Another gunshot sounded in the distance, close to the previous one, the Grimm seemed to be able to hear the shot as well, another snarl leaving the rows of teeth as it turned it's body to follow the sound.

As soon as the Grimm disappeared from view Stonewall retracted her hands, allowing Ruby to fall to her knees and release all the air that was trapped in her lungs, providing the small girl with quite the crimson face. Weiss had her hand to her stomach when she leaned against the wall, her back bent slightly as if she was preparing to throw up after the experience. "That…was…nerve wrecking… What the hell was that thing?"

Stonewall approached the end of the alley with her eyes peeled, her walk was cautious and slow as her head peered out from the edges of the walls to make sure there wasn't anyone or anything to hear them. "Grimm seem to be getting worse and worse everyday…'' Every week, every mission, reports of strange new Grim seemed to pile up.

There wasn't anything around the corner, at least nothing in her view that held the possibility of jumping out and/or attack the group. Things seemed safe for the moment. Stonewall turned back to the two girls that still held their stomach and seemed similar to one that was close to vomiting, roller her eyes Stonewall approached the two with a quiet grunt before gasping the collars of their shirts, pulling them over to her. "Snap out of it, you two. I don't want the Grim catching us by surprise this time!"

"We're going back?" Weiss asked, her head turned to look towards where the Grim has slinked off towards, clenching her hand slightly. Stonewall simply nodded as she pushed forward through the alley way, dragging the other small girl behind her. "But the gunshots…"

"What about them?" Stonewall stopped as Ruby started to struggle out of her grasp, the small girl breaking the grip and joining Weiss at the other end. For a second Ruby seemed confused, but as she looked towards the direction the shot originated from she began to get the same thoughts as Weiss.

"Wasn't that where the others went?" Ruby questioned with a tone laced with fear and hesitation at the thought, both her and Weiss could hear movement behind them as Stonewall seemed to pace backwards and forwards.

"…Shit"

* * *

"Welcome ladies, gentlemen and bloodthirsty creatures alike to the Global News Radio. I'm your host, the unfortunately named Little J, here to bring you soothing tones and insane news in this fucked up world we live in. Feeling down because the Grimm took all your supplies? Those bastards banging down your door? Well, tough time for us all. But at least you get to go out with a classics racing through your mind! Now for the good stuff, even to this day I he-"

The radio lost its ability to communicate as it was crushed under a black boot, it's surface cracking from old age and small bits of the wires spilling out onto the cold ground. "What the hell, Boss? I was listening to that!" The whine came from the right of the boots owner, who didn't even bother to turn and face the complainer, only letting out a amused chuckle as he spat.

"Shut it, Mercury. If you want a heard of Grimm ripping you apart and labelling you their next meal, I'll throw you to them myself, but I am not getting ambushed by fanged abominations because you wanted to listen to bad radio stations" He heard a few steps from around him and soon Mercury's shadow was in his view.

"I just wanted to listen to some tunes, is that so bad, Boss?" Mercury's tone held a small amount of arrogant smugness, the fact that he was smirking was obvious even to the man that wasn't looking. "You deaf, bo-"To say that Mercury was surprised when the crimson haired man turned and pressed the barrel of a gun against his stomach would be an understatement.

"Look, Kiddo. When I say 'jump', you ask 'How high?' Where I walk, you follow like a lonely pup. And when I tell you to stop fucking around, you look to the floor and consider the merit of not being a complete idiot" The man gestured around himself towards to various corpses that surrounded them, fresh corpses with recent bullet wounds through their clothes, a small amount of fresh blood leaking from the holes. "These little rats decided to be stupid and now look at them, don't make the same mistake or you'll join them in feeding the flies"

Mercury didn't realise the gun had been returned to the folds of the other man's white jacket until he felt a tanned hand tap his shoulder, gulping slightly he craned his neck to meet the expectant gaze of is emerald haired companion. "That was… Intense"

"Torchwick is always intense when you piss him off, next time think about that before running your mouth" She places her hands on her hip and fixes him with a small glare, she had to make sure that Mercury understood it as he wasn't the most bright of people. "Okay?"

"Oh come on, Emerald. I'm not that dumb, I understand when not to aggravate someone" He shrugged at her, only to receive a slight hit to the head from the Woman. "Hey, what the hell was that for!?"

"If you could ever understand that you wouldn't constantly get a gun pointed at you" She gave him a glare when he attempted to retort to her words, causing him to clamp his mouth shut as they turned towards Torchwick; who seemed to look rather suspiciously behind them.

* * *

Ruby's breathing had returned to it's normal pace as she proceeded to follow Stonewall through the empty rooms of the various abandoned buildings, her throat recovering from its recent entrapment; Weiss had though it logical and safe to duck in and out of the buildings in case there was any danger nearby. But each house held the slight possibility of more danger, tension hung in the air for Ruby as each turn of the corner was a held breath as the thoughts of what could be hiding inside race through her mind.

The three could tell that they were getting closer to the source of the gunshot, a foul odour arose and wafted its way through their noses, their backs pressed against the wall as they neared a shattered window and near inaudible voices could be heard. When they neared the window a single voice could be heard an understood, though a bit of static came along with it.

"Welcome ladies, gentlemen and bloodthirsty creatures alike to the Global News Radio. I'm your host, the unfortunately named Little J-" Ruby blinked at the voice as it spoke, looking up to Stonewall and whispering her inquiry to who 'Little J' was.

"Just some bullshit radio station. 'Making the apocalypse a little more bearable' If you ask me, it's a wasted effort on his part" _Feeling down because the Grimm took all your supplies? Those bastards banging down your door?_ Stonewall now sat with her back against and just below the window, the two girls in a similar position around the doors of the building. _Now for the good stuff, even to this day I he-_

Someone crushed the radio and proceeded to berate another person, causing Stonewall to rise her finger to her mouth and signal the other two to remain quiet and hidden. The woman then proceeded to slowly turn herself around, placing her hands flat on either sides of the window before she dragged her body upwards so that her head just peaked over the edge.

Her vision presented her with what seemed to be the town square, a large oak tree in the centre sill managing to stand tall, though obviously withering. Other shops were set up around the square, some boarded up and closed while others had shattered windows and breaking walls. Around the tree stood a crimson haired man and a blue haired man, the crimson one was dressed…strangely. His white suit, red tie and long rimmed hat almost gave him the appearance of some sort of gangster.

"And when I tell you to stop fucking around, you look to the floor and consider the merit of not being a complete idiot" _Not the most motivational leader_ _…_ Stonewall's expression became confused when she looked to see that both Weiss and Ruby looked at her suspiciously, though when they saw that she could see their stares they instantly tried to loo the other way. _What_ _'_ _s up with them?_ "These little rats decided to be stupid and now look at them, don't make the same mistake or you'll join them in feeding the flies"

 _Little ra-_ For the first time Stonewall took in the rest of the area she looked towards, her face stretching into shock as she saw the corpses littering the square, corpses she could clearly recognise and picture in her mind. _Those_ _…_ _Those people_ _…_ She rose a little more to face the two girls as she composed her new found anger, gritting her teeth as she whispered "Ruby, Weiss…Don't…We have to leave. Now"

"What is it, mam?" Weiss inquired hesitantly, the anger on Stonewall's face was surprising and made Weiss regret asking what caused it. "What about the others?" Ruby nodded as if to ask the same question as well, she did not feel okay that Stonewall was suggesting to leave them alone.

"The others are… We can't reach them anymore, the plan has changed. We need to make o-"She was cut off when the familiar voice of the crimson haired man reached her ears, seemingly much louder than before, threat and amusement obvious in his tone.

"Who's there?" Stonewall hadn't really thought of the fact that when nearly standing up in the window, she left herself wide open to being spotted, especially when her clothing did not blend in with the building's 'Bright' display. The man had easily been able to make out that she was there.

Stonewall stood up fully with her arms held up high as a sign of 'peace', she might be a bit stubborn at times, but even she could recognised when she was outmatched. She would no take on three armed individuals, with grimm lurking about and with children she's supposed to protect in threat distance. She let out a whispered command towards Weiss and Ruby, fixing them with a serious expression "Head back to the meeting point, if no one returns in an hour run back to the outpost as fast as you can"

"Move!" The man commanded, to which Stonewall complied as she nodded as the shocked faces of both Weiss and Ruby. _Go!_ Stonewall pushed herself through the shattered window, keeping her arms up as she face the visibly armed man, his hand holding out his weapon to aim directly at her. He gestured with the gun for her to come forward towards the other two abnormal haired people. "Now, please kneel down while we rob you of all your possessions"

Stonewall did as the man commanded as her eyes were drawn to the corpses, her rage starting to bubble in the pit of her stomach as she glared at her now dead comrades. "Friends of yours?" The inquired with the same amused tone, his foot pressed firmly on her back to push her to the floor. "It's easy to tell when you military rats always wear the same insignia on your armour. Though I doubt you're pleased with this and to answer the question running through your mind, no, it wasn't an accident" Stonewall grunted as she hit the floor with a small growl, the man's annoying voice was already getting on her nerves.

"You really love to hear yourself talk…" She spat at the ground where she imagined his feet being, surprisingly she could hear Mercury letting out a disgusted 'Ewwww'.

"Well, of course. My voice is a plague to not hear, a sin. But, how rude of me..." He gave her back a slight kick again with a smirk. "I have yet to introduce myself! Roman Torchwick, dashing rouge with a voice like honey" Even if she couldn't clearly see it, she knew that Torchwick was grinning broadly with a 'punch-me' smile. Looking upwards she could see the others rolling their eyes at his statement. "But enough about me, let's talk about you"

"You sure your fragile ego could handle talking about someone else?" She smirked as she could just hear a small grunt of anger, wishing she could see his expression at the moment, maybe take a picture. Torchiwick however was not as amused, which he showed when delivered a hard kick to her head.

"You know, I was thinking of just leaving with your valuables and at least some sort of weapon to fend with yourself, but… Now I find myself conflicted on what to do with you…" The woman's eyesight was rather blurry after that kick to the head, an aching pain in the back of her head made her vision look as if someone had put a distorted mirror over her eyes. "Maybe leave you here stark naked, covered in the blood of your friends. A perfect treat for Grimm. Or…" She could just see him raise his pistol and drop closer to her, his knee crushing her legs as he held the barrel of the gun only inches from her head "I could just put you down here and now…Decisions, decisions…"

It was not looking too hopeful for the woman, biting down on her lip to stop all sorts of obscenities at Torchwick and whoever could hear, though it was becoming harder and harder to restrain herself when death was creeping closer. A gun held at her head, an egotistical bastard probably laughing his ass off, ready to pull the trigger and leave her lying here with the rest of her survivors. The situation was dire, so she made a desperate move.

Throwing all her weight to the side she launched her body into a flip, the movement of her leg just managed to unbalance Torchwick and send him down as well, though not for long. His response was immediate as he quickly pulled himself to his feet, Stonewall just managing to get onto her knees to crawl, her damaged eyesight making it hard to move correctly.

"Looks like you made my decision that much easier" Stonewall tried to crawl faster, but upon hearing a rushing pair of footsteps she felt the hands of Torchwick's accomplices grab hold of her and pull her to her feet rather forcefully, the Emerald haired one placed a small machete like object just below Stonewall's throat. Even if her vision was blurry she could make out the smiling bastard in front of her, raising the gun again. _It was worth a shot, at least Weiss and Ruby ar-_

Torchwick let out a scream of pain as he dropped the gun, his firearm clattering to the floor with drips of blood following it. Stonewall realised that Torchwick was now clasping his should, his now rather red shoulder that seemed to have something pale atop it, though after a second to focus on the pale object she just managed to make out that it was a tiny hand.

"R-ruby!?"

Torchwick screamed again as the hand rose up with what looked like a shard of glass and then proceeded to slam right back down into the man's shoulder, Ruby was hanging off of Torchwick's back, one hand keeping her up as her other hand continued to stab the man repeatedly.

But this didn't continue for long as Torchwick managed to catch the stabbing hand in a tight grip and forcefully pull it away from him, before then dragging the small girl off of his shoulders with his face almost scarlet with anger, ripping her already ripped shirt as he threw her to the ground, breathing wildly. "You…little…shit…" He managed to breathe out as he still gripped his bleeding shoulder, barly able to move that arm without nearly howling at the pain.

"My name is Ruby Rose, and I won't let you kill her…" Ruby was on her feet, a bit bruised, but still determined as she stared the rather intimidating man down. "Go away." She held the shard high and charged at the man again in an attempt to stab him again, but his anger suddenly turned to a dark smile as he chuckled. In the corner of her eye, Stonewall could just see Weiss a bit away from the scene, a small pistol in her shaking hands.

Raising his good arm Torchwick did not hesitate to drive is fist straight into the little girls face, knocking her right off her feet and too the ground. The small body of the girl hit the floor like a ton of bricks and was met with no resistance, going completely rigid at the impact of the punch. _She_ _'_ _s not moving_ _…_ _Dear god, please Ruby. Just be unconscious_ _…_ _For both you and Yang_ _'_ _s sake_

"Kids these days, never properly taught discipline" He looked around for his weapon, his shoulder still acting as a handicap. "And that lack of proper education leads to them dropping like flies" In his search Torchwick was surprised (Yet again) to see the tall white haired child standing way away at the other side of the square, a firearm raised. "Seriously? How many of you are there!?"

Weiss's only reply was to pull the trigger of her weapon, though the bullet as nowhere near hitting anyone, she didn't seem to have much sill in aiming. Glancing to the side Torchwick smirked to see the flickers of fear Stonewall held on her face as Weiss fired. "Alright, kid. It's obvious you can't aim and have completely no chance of killing us. So please stand still as my friends peacefully disarm you. Mercury."

The man in question nodded towards Torchwick and started to walk towards Weiss, a little scared when she continued to raise the weapon towards him with a warning gaze, still he continued towards her… Only for her to fire a bullet right into his leg. Mercury clutched his not bleeding leg as he collapsed to the ground, Weiss kept a stone cold gaze on him. "I wasn't aiming to wound or kill any of you..."

"Then you're just playing around with firearms? Tut, tut, tut. Such an irresponsible little tyke" Torchwick chuckled again, though confused when Weiss continued

"...I was aiming to get some attention"

There was no time to ask the obvious question when loud footsteps echoed across the square, the screeches that accompanied it were akin to a cat dragging it's nails across a chalk board. The foul odor seemed to intensify as the scratching came closer, a deep and loud growl chilling everyone there to their very bone. Stonewall was dropped as Emerald backed away at a snails pace, the creature now in full view. It stood tall on all fours, almost wolf-like with an expressionless black husk of a face that looked to all the available prey as it's teeth scraped it's tongue. "You purposely brought a Grimm!? What is wrong with you!?" Emerald attempted to scream quietly at Weiss.

There was no mistaking it, the creature was the same one that had almost pounced upon them back at 'Dust Till Dawn', but somehow it had grown much more larger in the brief time since then. Stonewall didn't have any time to ponder on this upon realizing that no one was holding her any more, prompting her to slowly pull her self away from the Grimm as it's head darted between both Torchwick and Mercury with the closest it could managed for a hungry look.

At this moment Ruby decided to awaken from her forced slumber with a groggy groan, though the groan got caught in her throat half way through as she noticed the Grimm, causing her to freeze to the spot, her breath hitched and had her feeling a very simmilar feeling as to when the Grimm had almost found them before.

"Why is it eyeing us? The girl brought it here!" Mercury moaned with a slight increase in his breathing, his leg basically useless at this point with the bullet hole through it. Though on the fortunate side for him, his fear of the creature in front of him seemed to have sent a wave of numbness through his entire body that seemed to ebb away the pain of his leg.

Ruby found herself casting a glance to Torchwick's bleeding shoulder before looking back towards the Grimm, noticing that it's make-shift nose and mouth were the only visible facial feature, before letting out a slight 'Ah', a revelation coming to mind. Could it be... _It's because they're bleeding bleeding, the thing is attracted to the blood. Maybe... Maybe I can't see eyes because... It doesn't have any. It's only following sound and smell!_ She looked back to Torchwick who seemed to start getting the same idea as her as he began to rip off the sleeve of his suit to wrap around his shoulder wound. _Is he trying to cover up the smell?_

The Grimm raised it's head while screwing up it's nose as if attempting to sniff something else, it seemed to turn it's head in search of something, impersonating the look that resembled confusion. But soon it turned to set it's 'sights' solely on Mercury, who let out a small whimper at the sudden attention. _Maybe it's interpreting Torchwick's fading stench as Torchwick getting further away, leaving only one easy target..._

Torchwick suddenly took off in a sprint without even casting a glance back at the creature, launching away from the beast towards where Stonewall had originally been hiding. The Grimm roared at this and charged forward using it's extremely powerful-looking hind legs to push it into a deadly speed, it's mouth fully open to reveal an array of sharp and malformed teeth situated on it's jaws. At the sight Mercury let out a mix of a scream and a cry as he looked towards the fleeing Torchwick, his hand outstretched as he yelled "Torchwick, you bastard. Don't leave me here to die!"

Emerald looked to Torchwick to see the response to her friend's pleas, but all she saw was one glance from the Crimson haired man before he simply rolled his eyes and continued running. "Sorry, Kids. But I'm not one to stick around the hopeless!" Emerald gritted her teeth as he disappeared around the corner without even looking back, a few curse words let loose from her lips as she turned back to face the screaming Mercury, rushing towards him.

Unfortunately for Mercury the Grimm reached the fallen man before any one else and happily clamped it's jaws around his leg wound, it's teeth stabbing into the bullet hole while the man let out anguished screams. Emerald took her machete from it's holster and didn't even hesitate before running through the beats head, causing it to let go of the leg as it howled, it's ink like blood staining the tip of the blade.

During the chaos of the Grimm's attack Weiss had rushed around the Grimm and proceeded to the fallen woman, kneeling before Stonewall and pulled her arm to wrap around her shoulder, resting the woman's weight on her shoulder. "I can't believe that worked!" She brought Stonewall to her feet and started to look for a quick exit as the woman on her shoulder started to talk.

"You PLANNED to bring a Grimm here? Are you insane? That could of backfired in so many ways!"

Weiss bit her lip at the berating from Stonewall, feeling pretty foolish for preforming such a risky move "It had a better chance of working then letting those guys shoot you..." She looked down at her feet in shame, like when her father used to yell at her over reckless actions. _Back then...Before this...Urg, how did I suddenly start thinking about that?_

"You did good, Schnee. You saved our asses today" Stonewall gave Weiss a nod, which Weiss interpreted as the closest Stonewall could get to an actual smile and nodded back. "Now, we have to get out of here. Come on, Ruby! If we're quick enough we can leave before the Grimm's done with it's new toy!" Stonewall's call to Ruby seemed to go unheard as Ruby was... Distracted.

The small girl sat on her knees watching the scene playing out by the tree, the Grimm had Mercury in it's jaws and what Ruby assumed was his friend stabbed the beast. The Grimm simply rose from it's food as dug it's claws into the side of the Emerald haired girl's head, launching he backwards and leaving a nice deep scar across her face with a few bits of skin completely gone.

"Ruby! Come on!" She didn't flinch at the calling of her name as she stared at the helpless man on the ground, her hand twitching when her gaze moved towards the machete that now lay closer to her on the ground. I _can run now. The monster is distracted... I can get out of this alive. But why arn't I moving? Is it fear? No, something else...A desire... That man is so helpless, defenseless. Like us, he was just trying to survive... I can't leave him there!_

Without a second though Ruby took off into a sprint towards the Grimm, briefly bending downwards mid-sprint to scoop up Emerald's dropped weapon in her hands, despite the cries of her companions she didn't slow down or even contemplate turning away. _Even if my life is on the line...Even if it might be stupid... I can't just let this guy die, even if I don't know why._ It was crazy, rash and stupid, but driven by her need to help she just couldn't let him die. The Grimm had now compactly taken half of the man's hand into it's mouth, the man seemingly having ran out of the energy to scream as the pain overtook him.

Upon reaching the feasting creature she felt something deep inside her overcome her usually nervous self, like a sudden rush of energy, anger and determination. She plunged the machete into the beast's stomach while her other hand reached up to grab a hold of one of it's horns, the creature emitted a cry that threatened to break Ruby's ears as it swung around to face it's attacker, but the momentum of the turning pulled Ruby up due to her grip on it's horn, sending her over the Grimm's back with the machete dislodged from the now leaking stomach.

With no hesitation she raised the machete and brought it down on the creature's snout (Which still held onto Mercury's hand), digging down to what was left of it's bones causing the Grimm to raise it's feral claws to slash at her. The small girl quickly ducked below the swing of the claws and threw her weight forward and under the Grimm's drooling mouth before rising to her feet, raising the machete again and wasting no time in bring it down on the rotting snout, cutting right through the bones and to the other side, completely taking the Grimm's snout off along with a few of Mercury's fingers.

The Grimm was pushed into a sudden surge of panic and confusion with the loss of two of it's four remaining senses, stumbling back it let out a pained howl as it swayed uneasily, as if it suddenly became cut off from it's own vision (Aside from the vision it already lost) and it definitely could not take it. Ruby backed away as the Grimm began to blindly swipe at the air with yet another anguished cry _The sounds it's making, they're terrible..It's crying...I-I..._ She shook her head and glanced at Mercury who was currently being dragged away from an almost relived looking Emerald, who was still shaking from the Grimm's slash. Before looking away Ruby was able to see the one look that Mercury sent to her, it was as if he wanted to spew gratitude, but was unable to.

Ruby turned and ran with that sudden rush that came over completely gone now as she still tightly gripped the bloody machete, she seemed to reach Weiss and Stonewall in no time, who were both off in the corner unsure of what they were going to do when Ruby ran off. "What the hell was that!? Rushing a Grimm with just a machete, you could of been killed!" Ruby was surprised to be enveloped in a hug by Weiss, who seemed not to mind the black blood and grime that stained Ruby's shirt.

"I...I don't know what came over me, but... I had to" It was easy to tell that Stonewall was about to interject with a steel toed remark, but Ruby quickly pleaded "Let's just go, please. There could be more" The girl was now on the verge of tears as she hugged Weiss tightly. Stonewall simply nodded as both Weiss and Ruby assisted in helping the woman walk, Weiss stealing quick stunned glances at Ruby.

 _I don't get it, one moment you're wading through blood to de-snout a Grimm, then you're barley holding it together on the verge of tears. Ruby Rose... You're worrying me..._


	14. Chapter 14: The Dark Descent

The body was warm even to his gloved touch, fresh blood staining his fingers when he pulled them away from the corpse. The door the body clung to looked as if it was close to collapsing, though that was not surprising due to the make shift spear that went right through both the woman's stomach and the door itself.

"Curious…" Adam finally spoke albeit under his breath after 'investigating' the corpse for a rather awkward five minutes, the tall red head craning his neck towards his companion, who stood a bit off into the side of the completely trashed room, a white wolf mask covering her face, similar to Adam's own mask. "Do you find anything strange about this?"

A short whimper came from the corner of the room, where a small boy sat shuddering in a fetal position, a gash across his arm that seemed to drip with what looked like black ink. Adam paid no mind to the wimper, being given the same ignorance from the boy, it was as if neither had noticed the other.

"I find it hard to see anything strange after all we've been through" The low toned grunt came off as dismissive, causing Adam to give an almost disappointed frown.

The crimson haired man took a step back whilst his eyes went over the corpse again, four metal stakes seemed to have been embedded in the woman's limps, effectively pinning her to the door. A fresh wound had seemed to have developed on her cheek, a black ooze dripping from it. "A woman pinned to the wall by stakes in both her hands and feet, very ritualistic behaviour"

It reminded the man of a wooden model his father used to always keep beside his bed, a genderless faunas pinned to a wall, a sacrifice, a message of hope or a warning. Adam never discovered what it meant. All he knew was that this was far different, a much grimmer scene with the only context lost with the rest of the lives of the previously populated outpost.

"And?"

"Highly unusual behaviour for a Grimm, don't you think?" Adam took to looking through the rest of the room, the pinned woman with a spear through her stomach was the most notable aspect of the room when they entered. Tables were turned over on their sides, a few cracks etched into the underside along with a few loose splinters.

"Yes, unusual for a Grim. But what makes you think this was done by a Grim?" She approached the man as he knelt down to inspect the cracks in the table, her eyebrows furrowing together with confusion, her right hand reaching up to move a few strands of her raven hair away from her eyes.

"The blood's fresh, so the death was recent. Couple that with the fact that the Grim were swarming this place just before we got here, I find myself doubting that anyone would have thought or even have time to pin her" His fingers ran along what he had initially assumed as cracks, however when he pushed the table fully over to let the light spill over it, the cracks were soon revealed to be claw marks. "And the claw marks here match the one on her cheek"

"But…Why? What reason would the Grim have to pin the girl to a door?"

"That's the curious part" He got up from his inspection of the table and went back towards the corpse, his mask covering any type of emotion he could have had to witnessing such a scene. "Maybe our answer lies beyond this door" He took a hold of the door knob, before pulling back on the door with the intent of opening it, a task more easily said than done, the bottom of the door grinding against the stone floor with each pull. "I could use some help"

The raven haired girl simply nodded at her partner and joined him at the door, grasping the side of the door and pushing against it after placing her back on the wall. The metal rust felt like fire to her hand, the pressure of pushing seemed to only push the metal into her already bruised skin, making it a struggle to continue pushing.

No matter how much they struggled, the two eventually reached a point where the door outright refused to move any further, leaving only a very narrow and tight entrance into the completely dark premises of the next room. "Barley any room to move, if something is in there…We won't have a chance to get back through"

Adam let out a short 'Hm' at his partner's worries while slowly nodding in agreement, but even with the problem presented, he couldn't quite shake the curiosity that had suddenly struck him. In fact, he couldn't help but feel as if something in the room was calling out to him to investigate "Alright, wait out here while I investigate"

Her only reply was an annoyed sigh, this being quite usual for the man. He crouched a little, placing his palm on the inside of stiffened door and squeezing his body through the available space. "Adam?" Her voice came as he came to face the dark veil directly, stopping.

With that his form moved forward, soon disappearing in the sea of lack that consumed him, another whimper coming from the boy they had found in the room upon entry. "Deal with the treat, Blake" He briefly wondered when his tone had become so cold, so emotionless. It was a small thing that always caught his ear whenever he made a command. Whenever something had to be done.

There was no reply from Blake, there was no reply necessary. No questions, no thoughts of doubt. On the required action. She turned towards the shivering boy with her eyes sympathetic, but focused, she knew what to do and had no trace of hesitation. "Help…m-" Before the boy could even look up and mutter his pleads for help, Death's feminine gloved hand removed her pistol from its holster and with a simple pull of the trigger, another body met the floor.

She kneeled beside the boy, her emotions confused, and her eyes regretful. She rested a hand on his arms, slowly pulling both limbs to rest on his stomach, her free hand forcing his eyelids to shut. She let go of the breath she didn't even realise she was holding. The boy was at peace.

Adam could hear the shot easily from the other room, though while the shot was loud it felt so distant while being swallowed by the sea of darkness. An ominous feeling flooded him, a slightly helpless thought to how vulnerable he was. Anything could leap from the shadows, giving him no time to respond before the inevitable killing blow.

He took hesitant steps through the blind path, feeling various fallen objects brushing against his feet as he walked. The echoes of his own footsteps being the only reminder that he hadn't passed out and was still moving, still feeling, still breathing.

The carful walk came to a sudden halt when his hip came into contact with rusted iron of a large desk, pressing his fingers against the smooth surface, he felt a slight chill run up his spine from the cold touch. Moving his fingers across the desk, he found his fingertips brushing against a powder-like substance. He didn't even want to guess what it was. His finger stopped when pressing against a smooth and warm object, tracing over it revealed an almost diamond shape.

Suddenly he found himself bathed in a crimson glow, the darkness seemed to scarper at the presence of the light, revealing a lot of shattered objects scattered about the room. He found that his hand was atop the source of the glowing, the diamond-like object now firmly in his grip.

Above his hand wasn't exactly surprising, but that didn't stop Adam's nose from wiggling uncomfortably at the sight. A rope hung from the ceiling, a long dead body's slumped head rested through the noose end of the rope, keeping the whole body up. Behind him on the walls was words that looked a lot like graffiti.

 **Salvation is lost. Vale is a lie. There is no sanctuary!**

But, as Adam gazed upon the dead body, the final expression on the corpse's face was simply a grimace. No fear, no sadness. Just a refusal to look. Adam didn't feel any sympathy for the man, he felt indifferent to the scene, his interest much more invested into the object now in his hand. It had become Adam's repeated mantra. _The weak will be pitied, the weak will be grieved, and the weak will be innocent or will have given up. The world is cruel. The Weak will never survive._

He stared down at the glowing object, looking back towards the open doorway with a moment of conflict reaching him mind. But again, something called to him, something whispered for secrets. With that, he hid the object in the depths of his pockets. "There's nothing of interest here"


	15. Chapter 15: Tension

**To Chaotic chains, at the start of the story Ruby is seven and when they get to Beacon, she is still seven. In chapter seven there's a time skip of five years and in chapter 12 three more years have passed. Sorry if that is not clear.**

* * *

"I'm dying, aren't I?" Jaune muttered to himself, the world around him fading from view, his limbs going numb.

"You're not dying, Jaune" Yang's voice was distant, though that was mostly because she was on her feet while he lay on his back, her hand gripping his arm as she dragged him across the ground. Her voice was obviously annoyed.

"You're voice is so distance…this world is fading around me…" He coughed slightly, his free hand on his chest as he let out a slight moan. "Tell Ruby that she was my best friend... And that Chopper is the best damn doctor the world has ever seen!"

Yang shook her head with another annoyed grunt. "Jaune, your nose is bleeding. Get over it!"

"And tell Pyrrha that it was I who stole her favourite comb…"

The dragging stopped, Yang's head tilted to look down at the boy who had been dragged beside her ankle "You stole a comb?"

"These glorious locks aren't naturally straight!" He crossed his now free arms with an 'hmpf' "Just because it's the end of the world, doesn't mean my hair should suffer"

"If you don't shut the hell up, you will be dying!" The golden haired teen growled, which seemed to shut Jaune up for the moment. "You're such an idiot"

"I have to be, so you look smart in comparison" Yang let out a small chuckle at the fallen boy, offering him a hand which he gratefully took. "I mean, without me people would hate you!" She began to pull him up as he gave her a triumphant smirk. "No retort? Have I managed to silence the great Xio Long?"

She halted her pull with a cheeky smile. "Nah, I was just waiting to do this" With that, she let his fingers slip through her own, leaving him grasping at the air before plummeting back to the muddy ground. She threw her head back as she let out a loud laugh. "Even after all these years, Vomit Boy. I guess you could say…"

"Don't you dare!"

"You FELL for it again, Vomit boy!" Her laughs started to sound more like some sort of demonic chipmunk laugh, though soon she found herself receiving a handful of mud to her face. One might think that might have been an overreaction, but to Jaune it was a justified punishment for an abomination of a joke. A joke Yang seemed to take every chance to make today…

Before Yang could utter a swear towards the boy and exact vengeance, she spotted Pyrrha walking towards them from the steps up to the hill. The red head had a happy expression lighting up her features, an expression which soon turned to confusion as she got close enough to notice Jaune on the ground. "Jaune?"

"He had an accident"

"That wasn't an accident that was assault!" The boy spoke up before Yang;s hand immediately came to cover his mouth, tutting.

"Shhh, it's okay, Vomit Boy. You were just delirious"

"You punched me in the face!"

"I thought you were attacking me"

"I was casually walking up to you!"

"Behind me! Besides, you stole Pyrrha's comb, I wouldn't put it past you to sneak up on me!"

Pyrrha let out a short lived sigh, a small smile on her face at the two's bickering. "Guys, guys. Just calm down an- Wait, you took my comb!?"

"I needed it..."

"You're hair doesn't even reach past your ears" Yang pointed out, reaching out to take a stand of Jaune's dirty blond hair between her thumb and index finger.

Pyrrha covered her mouth to attempt to look calmer through her quiet laughter "This reminds me of when you used to steal clothes from your mum and dad's closet to look bigger…"

This resulted in Jaune pulling a face of embarrassment as he finally got to his feet. "Hey, you promised not to tell anyone about that!"

She simply nodded at Jaune, suppressing her laughs to giggles. Though with a quick cough she was calm again, she sought them out for a reason. "I almost forgot, I heard the guards spotted Ruby's group coming up to the gate! They should be here about now"

Yang had disappeared as soon as Pyrrha had mentioned Ruby, rushing past with little to no more notice of the red head causing her to almost knock the poor girl down. Jaune could only get a glimpse of Yang before she made off down the hill, though he quickly scrambled forward and took a hold of the already dizzy Pyrrha's arm and pulled her along after Yang. "Common, we can't let her beat us down there!"

Despite what the trio made it appear like, times were certainly hard at the outpost with most hours being spent in gruelling work, all to make the outpost function for another day. When the world around them was so gloomy, the kids found it appropriate to find a way to cope. So any overreaction, any cheap insult and any usually plain and unfunny jokes managed to get a smile from them.

It was something especially needed at the moment to take everyone's mind off of Ruby for the day, Yang was the one most affected. While she put on a façade of smiles and laughter, she was struggling to push the millions of grim questions in her head to the back of her mind.

Jaune could only imagine what was plaguing her imagining that she was repressing the millions of ways she could imagine Ruby dying. Every way Ruby could disappear, her cries for help that would never come. The thought of her limp body with no trace of life… It made Jaune shiver a bit.

The boy's mind was focused on being more positive on the matter, instead of drowning in despair, Jaune took to simply imagining all the most outlandishly fortunate ways Ruby could succeed. Because he was in the firm belief that Ruby Rose was a girl that could do anything. To him, she would end the mission by riding on the back of a Grimm through the town, striking a heroic pose as she made all the other Grim bow before her.

Yes, it was a rather unreasonable thought. Some might say it's completely out of the way of reality. But for Jaune, no matter how crazy and impossiable, it was a comfort for him. What wasn't a comfort for him was the cry that almost stopped him in his tracks as he dragged Pyrrha down the hill.

"WE HAVE WOUNDED!" The cry that swept across the outpost could probably be heard from another country, it was desperate and very loud. Though the voice was familiar to both Pyrrha and Jaune as they found themselves recognising the femenine cry of Weiss, Jaune didn't even hesitate before bolting out of sight, Pyrrha soon following suit to rush towards the front of the outpost.

There was already a few people at the front gate not counting the armoured guards that leapt down from their posts to pull open the towering gate, by the time Jaune and Pyrrha appeared there was already a group of various people guiding a limping Stonewall and a sleeping Ruby on the shoulders of another armoured individual, a damp red cloth wrapped around her head. Weiss could be seen following close beside Stonewall, her shoulder right under the woman's arm to support the woman's movements.

Jaune took no time to make his way down the slight slope of the hill and reaching the foot of it in a short amount of time, walking up to the group with a hitched breath as he got a full view of Ruby. She was limp, her legs now hanging off the armoured man's shoulder, her once delicate pale face now looked much worse for wear. A dark purple mark had spread around her right eye, causing a small amount of swelling over the top part of the eye, though most of it was covered by the red cloth that Jaune could tell wasn't always red.

He was about to let loose a foul yell about what happened, but before he could a much calmer voice already spoke his thoughts, a gloved hand now placed squarely on his shoulder. "What happened?" Jaune didn't need to look to recognise that Ozpin was directly behind him along with both Glynda and Ironwood, trying to silently console Jaune while talking.

Glynda walked to stand beside Pyrrha, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder as she calmly spoke "Pyrrha, I need you to go get the doctor" Without hesitation, the red head swiftly turned on her heel and bolted in the other direction.

Yang was already on her knees, her sister's body now dropped into her arms to be cradled delicately. The blond girl held Ruby against her chest, muttering chants of confidence with an almost mortified look before her head turned to seek out Jaune. A silent plea for support hit Jaune, who immediately rushed over to cradle his best friends body along with Yang.

Stonewall frowned and had her eyes glued to the ground for a minuet while she gathered her thoughts, before looking back up to fix Ozpin with a serious look. "We were attacked, by both Grimm and other people. They certainly kicked my ass, and one delivered a blow straight to the little ones face. A Grimm scared off the attackers, we managed to get away, but Ruby here just collapsed suddenly."

"And the others?" Ozpin returned Stonewall's stare as she gritted her teeth slightly, her hand clasping into a fist which in turn made Ozpin nod with a sigh. "I see..." He didn't need any details, her reaction was good enough. More good people, lost.

"We can't just take this lying down!" Bellowed Ironwood, his voice surprisingly filled with rage as his face contorted to and almost threatening look. "These bastards have killed our people, we need to take some of our best to go and hunt them down!"

"And what would that achieve!?" Gylnda brought herself up from her knees and back onto her feet, a scowl plastered on her face as she stormed towards Ironwood.

"It'll send a message, scare them off. So they know who they're dealing with" Ironwood's words sounded more like barks now.

Glynda stood in opposition to the man, poking his chest with her finger. "Or it'll simply give them more reason to kill us and waste our resources!"

"People are dying, Glynda. We can't just stand by and allow this to happen" Jaune shuffled away slightly, fear from the two adult's unusual yelling creeping up his spine. "What do you suggests we do? Just sit here and ignore them?"

"I suggest we don't purposely instigate an all-out fire fight!" They matched each other's glares with heated anger. "I suggest we don't send our people to die to the Grimm for an act of vengeance!"

"ENOUGH!" Ozpin's voice smashed through their argument and left them in silence, both of their gazes switching to Ozpin who now gaze a disappointed and stern look. "We are all agitated, but this is a matter best left to a better time, a more private time. Right now, we have wounded to take care of and chores to do. So please, for the sake of the people here, calm down"

Before any replies or protests could be made the familiar form of the doctor appeared at the foot of the hill, Pyrrha leading him towards the wounded. The old man wasted no time and immediately started ordering others around "The little one needs to be taken up to my office, her wounds seem the most damaging"

"Allow me" Glynda appeared beside Yang with her eyes softer as she gazed down at the wide-eyed Yang, she knelt down slightly and opening up her arms. "Give her here, Yang" Silently the blonde sister obeyed and placed Ruby in Glynda's arms. "It'll be okay, she'll be in good hands" Yang still didn't reply.

"I can walk" Stonewall grumbled when Weiss attempted to help her further, the woman giving the girl a ghost of a smile before walking silently beside Glynda.

Yang was still silently staring ahead, looking as if she was ready to burst out into tears. Jaune rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her, stuttering out his words as he pushed away his own sad feelings. "Don't worry, Yang. The doc will have her back on her feet in no time. She's a tough cookie!" The blonde's gaze moved from staring at space to stare at the shallowly breathing Weiss.

"Funny…" Yang finally spoke, venom littering her voice as her hands curled into an angry fist. "Stonewall and Ruby are covered in grime, blood and wounds…" She pushed Jaune away lightly, standing up with a look of pure spite as she stormed towards Weiss. "..And the fucking princess her doesn't have a god damn scratch on her!"

Jaune's eyes widened as he started to piece together Yang's thought process. "Yang, no! She di-"

"Don't be so rude, Jaune. I'm sure the princess doesn't want to be spoken for by the help" Weiss backed away slightly at the dangerous look in Yang's eye, it was similar to the one she had when she previously socked Weiss in the jaw years back. "So, where were you when Ruby was taking a beating? Watching it from afar?"

Weiss was content to stare the furious sister down with a cold look "I was figuring out how to help Ruby and Stonewall avoid ending up dead-"

"Bullshit!" She reached out and grabbed a hold of Weiss's collar, pulling the girl closer "You always hated Ruby, you were probably begging for this to happen!"

The girl was starting to get on Weiss's nerves, she could understand that Yang was in distress at the moment, but that didn't mean that Weiss had to take the accusations and venom lying down. "Get your hands off me you damn, dirty buffoon!"

"Yang, Stop it!" Pyrrha demanded, launching herself towards Yang and grabbing her front, pulling her away from Weiss while Jaune pulled off the blonde's grip. "This isn't Weiss's fault!" No matter the problems that Pyrrha had with the snow haired girl, she would not stand by an let Yang hurt her for no good reason, and neither would Jaune.

Yang struggled for a moment as Pyrrha pulled her back, wrestling with the red head while Weiss looked on in surprise at the two coming to her aid against their own friend. Jaune now stepped in front of her with the full intent of blocking her from Yang, causing Weiss to let out a small confused whimper of ''Why?'' The strugle ended with Yang managing to push Pyrrha off of her, standing a bit away from them with her if a huff.

"I-Urg, Fine!" She practically barked at the three, turning on her heels to stomp off.

"Yang!" Jaune cried, only for her to turn and glare at him

"Just leave me alone, Jaune" With that she disappeared up the hill in an enraged huff, leaving the three in a thick air of tension. Pyrrha sighed as Jaune simply stared at the place Yang had been with regret, reminding himself that he probably could of done better. He turned to share a look of grief with Pyrrha, her only giving him a confident nod before approaching Weiss.

One thing was for sure though, this was not over yet.


	16. Chapter 16: A moment of Peace

"She'll live" Those words came as a relief for Glynda, even if it was the fifth time the doctor had repeated them. Ruby looked slightly better now after the Doctor's inspection of the wounded girl's body, checking for any sign that the girl had been cut by the Grim in her encounters (For the safety of the people in the room, Ruby was strapped down to the table).

Her skin lacked the dirt and grit that had littered it before hand, now only wearing small scars and fading bruises. All fading aside from her right eye, where the darkened bruised flesh had swollen in the upper corners. "But her eye isn't looking good, the swelling has stopped, but it'll be a while before it starts to go down. There's a chance that whatever caused this wound might have fractured some of her skull, but I can't tell without better equipment"

The old man leaned over the body with a tired gaze, using a small set of tweezers to pull the swelling point back slightly, giving him a better look at Ruby's eyes. "For now, we can only hope she recovers fast" Retreating from his tweezer probing, the doctor rummaged through a box beside the table, fishing out a small and old looking bottle that seemed to have some sort of blue gel-like substance inside. "And apply this to the wound once a day"

Glynda nodded firmly, taking the bottle from the old man's hand and pocketing it, before sliding her hands under the small girl's body and lifted the girl into her arms. "I'll take her back to her bedding"

The woman carried the girl away from the table and towards the door the Doctor calling from behind her "Tell Stonewall to come in on your way out" Glynda simply nodded in response as she pushed open the door, Ruby groaning in her arms, though clearly still asleep.

Outside the small shed/office Glynda could see Stonewall sitting against the wall with half shut eyes, the wounded woman immediately looking up at her upon the door opening. "The girl still breathing?"

"Ruby is fine" 'Ruby' was emphasized by Glynda, who was slightly annoyed by Stonewall referring to Ruby as just 'The girl', more then she should have been. "She'll recover soon"

Stonewall nodded lazily, picking herself up from the ground. "I'm guessing it's my turn to go in" She walked over to Glynda, her eyes passing over the unconscious form of Ruby. "Never could swim…"

Glynda eyebrows furrowed in confusion of the mutter, letting out a loud 'huh?'. Stonewall continued on, her hand on the door frame. "When I was ten, I jumped into a lake. I was too heavy to float and was too scared to even attempt to use my arms. If my dad hadn't dived in after me…You know"

"While that is an interesting story, I don't understand why you're telling me this"

Stonewall pulled a regretful face, finding it hard to talk, but continued as she gazed down at Ruby. "Point is, most things and deeds are forgotten. But when someone saves your life…You never forget" She pulled open the door, sighing as she walked inside. "What I'm trying to say is that if you see them, while they're awake, tell Weiss and Ruby that I said T…Th…Th-t-t-thanks"

The door closed before Glynda could even attempt a reply, only being able to sport a raised brow before the door shut. Another groan from Ruby reminded the older woman that she had higher priorities, but that didn't stop her curiosity from running wild.

She stared down at the girl in her arms, looking closely at her swollen closed eye. _You and Weiss saved Stonewall's life? I'm sure Yang will be proud._

* * *

Weiss sat in an uncomfortable position with her knees pulled up against her chest, her chin resting on the top as her suspicious eyes looked from Jaune to Pyrrha. Her mind was to confused to allow her to speak, the whole incident beforehand had started and ended in a blur, leaving her to ponder.

The two who now sat in front of her seemed content with the silence, patiently waiting for Weiss to muster up her voice. She felt the chilled fingertips of the evening wind, the sun having just dipped under the horizon with the moon now illuminating the darkness. The moon was an interesting thing, it was cold and only came to push away the sun's golden warmth. But it still attempted to illuminate people's day, it tried to do its part even if others complained; Like her.

Unlike the moon, Weiss had no true admirers for what she was. The sun and Moon were both a beauty to behold, both could cause an enchanted array of feelings to arise in the hearts of many. But Weiss only managed to anger them, mostly due to her own fragile hold on her own anger, her narrowed view that only left her with judging eyes.

"Why?" Finally able to pull herself together (Briefly berating herself for comparing herself to the moon), Weiss got the attention of the two teens with her unintentionally loud voice. "Why protect me? You could have just let her hit me…"

"Because that would make no sense" Pyrrha stated boldly, treating Weiss with a neutral expression, not knowing what would make Weiss the most comfortable.

When Weiss attempted to ask for explanation she was interrupted by Jaune. "I mean… It's not right. We couldn't just let Yang hit you or worse" He spoke quieter than Pyrrha, he was probably still a little conflicted about going against one of his friends. "And even if what's right doesn't matter, it wouldn't make sense to fight each other more…"

Weiss almost wanted to make a quick and irritable comment towards Jaune, express mock surprise that he was thinking 'logically'. But she couldn't bring herself to do it, she told herself not to. _It would be rude to insult them after they helped me… And foolish, of course!_ Her teeth grinded against her bottom lip nervously, falling back to silence.

"Are you… okay?" Pyrrha pulled herself closer to Weiss, reaching out towards her. "Do you have any injuries from the mission? Because I'm sure Stonewall and Ruby ar-" The red head stopped when Weiss suddenly jumped back at her touch, the snow haired girl's eyes wide and staring at Pyrrha's hand.

"No…Don't…Don't do that" Her voice was a little shaky, before instantly changing to lash out with "I don't like being touched!".

"Oh… Sorry! I didn't mean to offend" Pyrrha tried to alleviate Weiss of her sudden mixture of fear and anger with an awkward giggle. "I wouldn't have guessed after you helped carry Stonewall"

The Ex-Heiress was again silent, her eyes softening as she realised she had raised her voice for no reason. "I…" The girl's gaze found the floor again, an audible sigh released. "I had no choice there… We were in danger. And I wouldn't want to give the Outpost more reason to leave me out there… Alone"

Jaune looked to Pyrrha with an unsure look, his mouth frowning as he and Pyrrha shared the same uncertainty in whether they should continue talking. Weiss still stared regretfully at the ground, her arms wrapped around herself. "If you want to leave. Leave."

While her cold tone did make Jaune feel like she was mocking them, he stayed silent and allowed Pyrrha to give Weiss a sad smile, nodding in understanding. "Jaune, let's go and find Glynda. It's been a bad day for her and she probably wants to be left alone…"

The boy only nodded back at the red head, doubting any of them were in the mood to argue before getting to his feet. He took one casual glance at Weiss, who seemed to refuse to look at the two as they retreated from her, but as soon as her turned his back on the girl. "Wait…"

Weiss looked directly at the two with what Jaune believed was a small smile, though with the current lighting of night time, he couldn't be sure. "Thank you. I know I didn't deserve it, but you probably saved me"

Jaune was surprised by the gratitude, but Pyrrha was definitely less taken aback, simply smiling at the girl. "Yang won't say it, but thanks for looking out for Ruby while we're not there. She speaks very highly of you, even if she bad mouths you at the same time"

"Yeah, well… Someone has to make sure that dunce doesn't set this place on fire"

"And Weiss?" Jaune continued to walk away while Pyrrha locked eyes with Weiss. "Don't judge Yang too much… Ruby's the only family she has left" With that the two disappeared from view, leaving a conflicted Weiss with a lot to think about.

* * *

Yang sighed again for the seventh time. A sleeping 15 year old laid in front of her, an old and barley straight 'sheets' below the girl's body. Glynda had placed the girl here in Yang's care around ten minuets prior, though in staring at her thankfully still breathing sister she had stretched that ten into twenty, twenty minuets she spent with no distractions aside from the paranoia that weighed on her mind slowly lifting.

It almost made her smile, almost. Thinking back to a better time where she'd hear her father near to tears as he wrapped both of them up in a firm hug, before placing them on the couch with a stern look. _It was only a bruise!_ They'd cry, their voices falling on deaf ears. A bruise, a scar, a prick, Taiyang Xiao Long didn't care. As long as it was something that harmed his babies in any way, he'd act like they were dying.

The hot headed blond always said he was overacting, that it was silly to worry over the two like that when they were clearly not bothered by it. She even said that he was over protective sometimes. Sticking so much padding on their bodies that they looked like furniture, only Summer being able to stop him from wasting bandages on scraped knees.

But, staring down at Ruby's sleeping form now made her understand that protectiveness more. Yes, a scraped knee was nothing compared to the life or death situations outside the outpost, but just seeing how frail and defenseless Ruby looked with wounds covering her... It got to the older girl. She almost imagined her dad shaking his head at her in a mostly joking manner, relieved that his baby was alright, but chastising the lack of protection and padding. '' _If she had put on her bicycle helmet, this would of never happened''_

Yang giggled to herself aloud at the memory of her father, causing the girl before her to let out a small, but audible groan. Her stare never leaving Ruby's face, Yang was relieved to see the girl's eyes blinking open, albeit slowly. She had always heard her father talk to their mother about how much he enjoyed waking the two girls up, how they _"They never lose that morning_ shine". It turns out that even with a swollen eye, that saying still held.

It brought the thought of her dad to the front of her mind, making her realize that this was really the first time in years that she ever really thought of the man. It wasn't a forgotten topic or one that was forbidden, but with all that went on in their lives, they never really talked about the people they knew before this all happened. Jaune had never really talked much about his parents, nor had Pyrrha or Ren (It was advised by Ozpin to try and avoid the topic of friends and family with Ren especially).

The last time Yang had even seen her father was the year before the Grimm appeared, he had to move for some apparently very important work in an entirely different country. They had barley any way to get into contact with him when the Grimm appeared and cities started to be sealed off, then when Summer had fallen ill, they just couldn't establish any type of contact with him. The image of a devastated Taiyang Xiao Long flashed in her mind, the man kneeling on the floor with probably the same thoughts pertaining to his family whirling around in his head.

"Yang?" The groggy yawn from the now awake Ruby brought the attention of Yang's brain back to her own sight.

Holding back a smile, Yang stared down at her with an almost knowing look "Finally waking up, are you?"

"Maybe five more minutes..."

"Lazy."

Ruby screwed up her face into a pout, moaning out "I had a bad day... And I hurt my everywhere..." The older sister reached down to caress the girl's cheek, letting her smile grow. Ruby's pale skin felt a lot more rough then usual, what had once been warm with sweat was now as cold as ice, the skin loosing it's once radiant glow.

"You had a bad day? You almost gave me a heart attack, sis."

"You weren't the one who got punched in the face"

The two pulled each other into a hug, Yang sniffling slightly. "Why'd you get punched in the face?"

"Because I was stupid..." With an ashamed look appearing on her face, Ruby continued. "Stonewall was in trouble, so I rushed in to save her without a clue. I paid the price for that...But I got to save Stonewall though. And now I got a cool scar!"

"Try not to get anymore" Yang told the girl in a completely serious tone.

"Then I probably shouldn't mention me chopping off a Grimm's snout to save a stranger..."

She let out a nervous chuckle when Yang pulled away from their hug to glare at her sternly. "Seriously!? What did I tell you?"

"The only good Grimm is a dead Grimm?" Ruby recalled back to just before they left for the mission.

"And to avoid Grimm!"

"You never said that..." After a few moments of silent hugging, a thought crossed Ruby's mind, her voice becoming quick and distressed. "What happened to Weiss and Stonewall? Are they okay!?" She didn't exactly remember how she got here, all she knew was that she passed out in Weiss's arms and woke up for a few minuets later with some guy jabbing her in the eye, before waking up again here.

Yang simply sighed at the girl's response, her look becoming stressed again as she thought back to Weiss, the person who around an hour ago she was fully prepared to beat into the ground. "Stonewall's getting checked up" Her anger flared again when she remembered how Jaune and Pyrrha jumped to Weiss's defence, the feelings of both confusion and betrayal hurt. "Weiss is... fine" Jaune's stung a little more then Pyrrha, at least with Pyrrha she expected a nuetral stance, but Jaune had always backed her before.

It couldn't possibly be because she was overreacting, right? No, she'd continue to tell herself that she was right , even in the heat of the moment. _Maybe Jaune was just...confused. Yeah, he was just as shocked and worried as me._ "I think you should go back to sleep, Rubes"

"But I just got up..."

"Weren't you just saying 'five more minutes' a second ago?"

"I'm filled with energy now!" Ruby even punched her arm into the air to prove it, only to immediately regret it when her shoulder groaned in pain at the movement.

Yang pressed her palm against Ruby's chest and with a light push, Ruby was down. "You need your rest"

"Fiiiiiine, but I need Dr Chopper!"

"I'll go see where Jaune put him then" The hot headed blond got back up to her feet, the dirt feeling more like sandpaper against the soles of her feet as she pivoted on the spot and walked away from the bedding. But Yang immediately stopped when Ruby called out her name yet again, the older sister tilting her head up before replying. "What is it, Rubes?"

"I love you"

Yang smiled at the girl, the warmth of the words being exactly what she needed. "I love you too. Never forget it"


	17. Chapter 17: A Lost Commodity

It must have been close to the day's end, an orange layer of colour coating the sky above the outpost as the golden gaze only sunk further behind the shadows. From the front this made the outpost more of an eye sore, the suns sinking in behind it made the bright lights simply spew from the outlines of Beacon, an almost heavenly image.

"The sun's starting to set" Emerald lowered the binoculars to press against her chin, her darkly toned hands reaching up to rub a small amount of sweat from her forehead. The temperature was the warmest it had been for the last few days, that wasn't by much considering this came on the heel of winter, but being able to feel sweat that wasn't cold drip from her forehead was a much better feeling.

The woman let the binoculars drop from her hands and allowed it to dangle from it's straps, turning her head to look down from her perch on the rock. At the foot of the rock she watched from stood a faunus, one with a very expectant look. "We should probably get going"

Blake stared back up at the woman lazily with hazel eyes, taking in the very dishevelled look of her companion, Emerald's short hair was splayed out in every direction. Frankly, it looked very similar to the moss she'd see on the ground sometimes. Making Blake wonder if the girl's hair was always like that.

The raven haired faunus responded with a dry tone ''What did you see?"

"There's no mistaking it, this is where those guys from the city are holding up. I saw them drag the survivors in" Emerald informed her, emphasizing the word 'I' as she dropped down from the rock. Dust rising around her feet when she reached the ground. "It's strange to see an outpost here, didn't Adam say that this was where all the Grimm are coming from?"

"You doubt him?" The cat-eared girl produced a glare towards Emerald. After Torchwick had his little 'accident' and filled that town with armoured corpses, Adam had angrily ordered Emerald and Blake to scout the survivor's place out, in case they sought to retaliate to the uncalled for slaughter.

"I didn't say that" Her response was immediate. Defensive. "I meant that it's a strange spot to house your people" She held out her hand with a small gesture of moving her finger up and down, in response a small water canteen was shoved into her hand. The top was popped open and she delightfully raised the container to her lips. "You'd think the Grimm would have got them by now…"

"They must of only got here recently" Blake stated firmly.

"And what if they didn't?" The suggestion caused the faunus to frown, the moss haired girl draining the water from the container with a slight smirk at Blake's expression.

"What if?"

Emerald opened her mouth to reply, but after thought went through her mind she stopped herself, just taking a slight satisfaction in the flash of anger crossing Blake's expression. "Nothing, nothing" Tossing the canteen back to Blake, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the small map that laid folded up in her palm.

"No, please. I love hearing your opinion, again" Blake grunted, crossing her arms. When there was only silence and another aggravating smirk. "I said please"

"I don't have to do anything just because you tell me to" Emerald's voice was now more frustrated. "What I mean is that Adam hasn't always made the best of decisions, he let Torchwick live"

"Torchwick is useful"

The woman spoke through gritted teeth as Blake peeked around the rock, making sure no Grim were about. "He's a spineless coward who left me and Mercury to die"

The anger faded from Blake's eyes as she remembered the state she last saw the blue haired man in. "How is Mercury?"

"He's missing half of his fucking fingers, they might just chop off his whole hand" The smirk was gone now, only replaced with a venomous glare at Blake, who had opened her mouth to extend sympathies. "Don't try to act like you care, because you don't care" Blake had fallen silent, biting her lip while trying to hold a blank face. "Everyone knows you're like his little princess. While we're busting our assess to get supplies, you're keeping his bed warm"

"That isn't even remotely true!" Blake fought back the urge to yell, both to not alert any Grim or the outpost and to not lose her composure. "I do as much for the White Fang as anyone, and I do not… 'warm' his bed!" Emerald was already walking away, the silent reply clear. They were going back to camp. Blake did suspect that people had these thoughts against her, but this was the first time they were vocal about it. As she followed the moss haired girl, Blake only sighed at the predicament. It was hard to let evident anger enter her face. But she didn't need to explode over a … petty accusation. _Even when the world's gone to shit, I'm still judged… I guess I'm used to it by now._

* * *

Jaune felt all the air in his lungs leave him as the small form of Ruby collided with his stomach, her hug causing a huge impact that almost knocked the boy off his legs. "Ruby! You're awake!" The fifteen year old wrapped her fingers around his wrist and dug the back of her heels into the ground to keep his currently shaky body steady. "How're you feeling!?"

When she looked up Jaune felt a little lump rise in his throat, the sight of her swollen eye made him pause. He knew that her eye was damaged, but he didn't think it would of gotten worse from the day before. "I feel dizzy, my arms ache and my eyesight has gone funny… Aside from that, I'm 100% A-Okay!" She pulled away, shaking her bruised hands, the aching that ensued reminded her that pulling a boy almost twice her height and weight wasn't that good an idea.

The boy smiled at her, though the smile diminished slightly as he witnessed her eyes grimace as they attempt to move. He could only imagine that sort of pain. I wonder if it's like a bee sting… "You really scared us yesterday-"

"That's what Yang said" Ruby interrupted almost immediately, a frown on her lips. She didn't like people saying that. No one should be scared because of her bad decisions, and it seemed to be a more common occurrence these days. "Will Pyrrha, Glynda, Ozpin and Ren say it too?"

"You were dragged through the front gate bloody and unconscious. We were worried" He closed his eyes, breathed deeply. Exhaled. He didn't want to seem forceful. "Is that so bad?"

"It's not wrong, I just don't like worrying anybody"

"I-… Let's just drop it" The sudden diversion from the topic was unusual for Jaune, he was usually too meek or polite to stop people from talking. The surprise was evident on Ruby's face. "We've had enough drama and arguments… Let's just be happy you're not dead, okay?"

"Drama? Did something else happen?"

"Nothing, just drop it" He waved his hand dismissively.

But Ruby still continued to protest "If something happened, I wanna know"

He froze. Thoughts running wildly through his mind, all questioning him. The decision of whether to tell Ruby about Weiss and Yang's 'fight' weighed down on his mind. Yeah, she deserved to know, but he felt like he was betraying Yang's trust yet again by doing so. And after already siding against Yang before, Jaune was hesitant to break her trust a second time.

"He's obviously not comfortable talking about it, Rubes" To Jaune's surprise, the teasing tone Yang used was her usual tone, unmistakably not angry or awkward. Considering the situation beforehand, it came as a relief for the blond boy. "You know mom never liked you prodding people for more then they're comfortable with"

When the small girl looked to her sister, it wasn't with a look of offence or glee, but a mix of shock and confusion at the comment. "M-mom?" The word came out as a simple whisper, her fingers frozen rigid on her leg. "You haven't talked about her since…"

The older sister looked upwards towards the greying sky, a tear in the clouds only providing a view of it's dark wound "I haven't? Oh…"

"Not since…"

"Not since then" Yang finished for the girl, already moving closer to the two, only as the taller girl closed in on the two did Jaune realise that her 'amused' gaze was directly on him. "Now, I need to talk to Jaune"

Silver eyes narrowed in worried suspicion as they switched between looking at each blonde's facial expressions, Jaune did not look… Safe. "Yang, I can't let you kill my best friend…"

"I'm not going to kill him. I just need to talk to him" When both Jaune and Ruby gave a sceptical look towards the reply, Yang crossed her arms and reaffirmed. "I'm not" No one was convinced "I just need to talk to him about something important, in private. And to clear stuff up"

One more look between the two, Ruby's unwavering protective nature towards her friend almost made things seem less… tense. Well, it at least made the tension less able to be cut with a knife. But before she could again voice her protests to leaving Jaune alone with her sister while something was obviously up, Jaune let out a sigh and gave Ruby a nod.

"But…"

"I'll be fine, Rubes. You should go find Pyrrha, she'll be happy you're awake" It was less of a polite suggestion and more of a friendly urge of 'Go away'. "Please, Ruby" With even Jaune telling her to go, Ruby only sighed before taking off away from the two back towards the sleeping area with a worried glance back to them every two seconds.

Both blondes were silent for a few moments after Ruby had disappeared from sight, their light breathing becoming one of the most audible sounds around them. Sweat dripped from Jaune's forehead. He was nervous. _Should I say something first? Or should I just get ready for her to punch me in the stomach?_ He found the second option much more productive, but his body still refused to raise arms in defence.

"I'm sorry"

It took a few moments for it to seem off, just how rough and low his voice seemed to have become, the tone, it was all suspiciously unlike him. That's when he realised it wasn't him that spoke. "Huh?"

The girl threw her head backwards with a sigh "I kind of yelled at you yesterday, wasn't intending to... Well, blow up like that" Amber eyes stared back up into the sky, the wound in the clouds healing.

"Oh!" Jaune blurted out immediately at her, his hand shooting up to cover his lips as he began to think of how being surprised could be taken as offensive. "I mean, I thought I would be apologising to you" The words became muffled through his fingers.

"For stopping me from making the precious Princess's eye match Ruby's?" She let out a low chuckle. Jaune wondered what she found that funny. "It's no big deal. Really, I should thank you for stopping me from doing something I'd regret" A sigh of relief. _So she realised that what she was doing was wrong? That's a-_ "You imagine what Glynda would of done if she found out I was in another fight? You guys saved me, quick thinking on your end"

Jaune frowned "That's the only reason you regret trying to hit her?"

Yang still stared up to the Heavens, she couldn't see the downward tug on her friend's lip. "Well, yeah. She was asking for it, but I don't think Glynda would believe me. Why else?"

"Because-!" Yang's chin came down back to normal, looking towards him expectantly in wait for his answer. But as Jaune raised his voice to answer, he found that his voice had seemingly disappeared. Something blocked his throat, pushed away his voice, his reason. _I could tell her that she was in the wrong and that she should go and apologise... I could... I should... But..._ It was fear. _I could also just shut up. I mean, Yang probably didn't mean it... So what if she doesn't apologise or realise her mistakes..._ "Because she's uh... Not worth it..." He forced out, accompanied by an awkward laugh. It seemed to convince Yang.

"I suppose" She turned around, facing away from him again. _Who am I kidding? Of course she needs to take responsibility._

Courage pushed back against the fear. "Maybe you should apologise to her" It was a surprise that Yang even heard his words considering how quiet and weak they came out.

"What?" Her eyes narrowed, resembling the eyes of a snake.

Clearing his throat he replied in a much more audible voice. "Maybe... You know, you don't want her holding this against you..." _Jaune, you spineless coward_

"I don't care what SHE thinks about me. She's just a snobby...uh... She's a snobby whatever. I'm surprised she hasn't had a heart attack yet with all the dirt she has to sleep near" It was like a bear growling at the small idiot that hit it over the head with a stick, though Jaune thought Yang was much more terrifying.

"Right" Courage was starting to win again. "But, I think th-"

"We should drop this... I still have the important thing I want to talk about" And fear slammed down on courage's head.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Whatever you want!" He mentally kicked himself. _Coward._

"Ever since we were little, I've always been Ruby's guardian. Helping her through life and making it my mission to never let anyone cause her harm, I guess you could say I'm over protective. With my dad gone and my mom... Dead, I'm the only family she has left. Well, that's what I always thought" She fell down onto her back, spreading out her limbs as if she was about to start making a snow angle. "But seeing her yesterday... It was a shock. I could never imagine her being in so much pain, all I could think was of how much I should of been there. I asked myself why I wasn't"

"Yang, it's not your fault. You couldn't of gone with her, or stopp-"

"I'm not done. After I put her to sleep last night, I was relieved, but that question was still there. It made me realise something, that I'm not always gonna be there to help Ruby, there'll be times when I can't be there for her. Hell, there might be a time where I.. Where I join my mom"

"You can't think like that!"

"Jaune, I want you to know... I trust you. Ruby trusts you. And if I'm ever gone, the only person I could trust to protect Ruby is family. So that's why if I ever die out there in that hell hole... I want you to take care of Ruby for me" There was no mistaking the small rivers of tears that fell from her eyes. "Promise me, Jaune..."

"P-promise?"

"If I'm gone..."

"I... I... I promise."


End file.
